Shutter (2008)

Too much of everything

One of my all time favorites.

Absolutely the worst movie.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

I've always been a fan of Horror films, but it's only in this year that I've become a real devout fan and started to really peer into the depths of the genre. For instance, I used to have a very big problem with watching foreign films, simply wasn't able to connect with a film in a language I couldn't understand. However, luckily the Horror genre really cured me of that, and today Japanese Ghost stories are one of my favorite sub-genres.Shutter is the only Hollywood remake of a Japanese Horror film that I've seen after already seeing the original (haven't seen A Tale of Two Sister before The Uninvited, or the original Ring and Grudge before the remakes). It takes a lot out of the experience of watching such a film, as it's very loyal to the original, so anyone who's seen the original will not be surprised by the turn of events and twists...The real compliments I have for this film are for the excellent story and surprising twists that really caught me off guard, and should therefore go to the original version. This remake is, however, very well done.All I can say is that this film is recommended for all you Ghost stories fans who enjoy Hollywood more than Japanese cinema, or for you truly devout Horror freaks who'd like to compare this to the original. In any case, make sure not to pass on this one!

Shutter is a rather different remake than the usual Japanese to American horror, it has a pace which is just cracking, it's speeds along very fast but smoothly, one thing I dislike is when a film takes too long to get going and it lags but this movie doesn't waste any time in telling the story. American remakes of Asian film can either be really good or really bad, this is a good one, in lots of ways, the first being the excellent central performance by Rachael Taylor, Australia's newest up and comer. This film was made a few years and it was before I knew anything about Rachael Taylor but recently I have seen her in quite a bit of stuff and I have to say she has a great screen presence, she is wonderful in Shutter and pretty much everything else she's in.Josh Jackson is pretty standard as the boyfriend with a bit of a secret, I mean his role could have been played by anyone but yeah he's also pretty good. The story is a cool one which made me google spirit photography afterwards, when horror film come out they have to have something different about them, not enough of them do and they suffer because of it. The story unfolds in a mish mash of photos and horror images and the twists that come out towards the end are ones I didn't see coming.All in all I just found this movie to be far superior to so many others, it just has something the others don't, I can't put my finger on it but it just does. Horror fans should enjoy this a lot and I would recommend it to people who like something a bit different, yes it's pretty tame and could be a lot scarier but it doesn't out stay it's welcome at all. Check it out people, and discover the great actress Miss Taylor.

OK, I really don't understand why a great majority of people are so negative about this film. I am a huge fan of horror movies, believe me I have watched masses, and trust me that this film is not as bad as people claim it to be. Over the recent years we have been plagued with remakes of Japanese horrors and usually the originals are way better. It is the same in this case, but it is still a film that offers many scares ( many refer to these as 'cheap scares', but IT IS rather entertaining and I found myself jumping a few times. :') The plot I have found interesting and was quite surprised by an ending. Acting wasn't too bad from the actors, and especially Joshua Jackson played his role well. The film was neither too long nor too short. If you have some free time, it's worth to give it a try. :D

I didn't realise that this was Americanised remake of the Japanese original, I knew it was rated very lowly by the critics, I guess I just wanted to watch it for the sake of watching a bad film, hoping to agree with the critics. Basically Benjamin 'Ben' Shaw (Joshua Jackson) and Jane (Rachael Taylor, a near spitting image of Nicole Kidman) are newlyweds, so are naturally taking as many photos as possible, whether meaningful of mundane. They move to Japan because of Ben's new and exciting job opportunity, a photo shoot in Tokyo, but on the way, driving on an icy road through a dark forest they seem to hit a girl and skid off road, but then they wake up, no body. Jane is sure of what happened, but she and Ben continue on to find their new perfect home, which they quickly, and the taking photos continues. Recently though when taking photos, Ben and Jane notice a strange white light is in most of them, and an expert tells them it is the sign of a spirit, i.e they have a ghost. With a series of nightmares, and worse strange events and attacks, the couple confirm that they are being haunted, and it appears to be that Japanese girl they hit with the car. But Ben reveals a very scary fact that he knew the girl, named Megumi (Megumi Okina), she used to be a stalker to him, she never left him alone, and they tried to frame her with some photos, but it turned into rape, and she committed suicide. In the end, Jane leaves him, and the saying "she's with me all the time" is very literal, she has been sitting invisible on Ben's shoulders since her death, explaining his weird neck thing, and in the end turning catatonic he is in a mental hospital. Also starring David Denman as Bruno, John Hensley as Adam, Maya Hazen as Seiko, James Kyson-Lee as Ritsuo, Yoshiko Miyazaki as Akiko and Kei Yamamoto as Murase. Jackson and Taylor are slightly dull together and separately, there may be at least one jump that actually got me, and the moment or two that was chilling, but almost all the way through was bored, not scared and unimpressed, a silly remake horror thriller. Poor!