Shutter

Shutter (2008)

Ranking: Nope
Moderately Trashy

Another exercise in mediocre film making. A newlywed American couple (Rachael Taylor and Joshua Jackson) move to Japan and have their technology haunted by the vengeful spirit of a dead woman (Megumi Okina). What starts out as a blur on the lens quickly escalates to something which can kill people. Rachael Taylor investigates. Eventually, she learns that her womanizing husband who cares more about taking pictures of hot chicks than he cares about her is actually a total asshole. It took her the whole movie to figure this out! Honest to God.

Not only did this film fail to inspire any feelings in me whatsoever, I also watched it with camera obsessed Mr. Green who sat through the entire movie talking about the pros and cons of everybody's camera equipment. "Woo woo, that guy's got a Leica" or "Nobody in their right mind would use that lens". Most vexing to him was the fact that the main guy shot in film rather than digital.

Most interesting to me was what they said about Polaroids - it is impossible to fake a ghost film on a Polaroid, as there is no negative. That's cool. Unfortunately, Polaroid cameras are not going to be around much longer. No ghost pics for you.

Moving on. This movie didn't have too many scares (none that I can recall) and goes further towards proving my theory that once one has become accustomed to the Asian horror picture, the novelty wears off and one realizes just how derivative and predictable they all are. And most of these movies have no sense of humour. Hmmm.

As usual, I have not seen the film upon which this is based. I could be excellent (interestingly, it is Thai - I had assumed that the original film was Japanese, seeing as the remake is set in Japan. But no. The only reason I can see for the remake to be set in Japan is that maybe Thailand just isn't cool enough for these people). But with the exception of one or two innovative scenes, the film fails to add anything new to the cesspool of Americanized Asian ghost movies. Perhaps the genre is exhausting itself.

What we really need is for the original Asian films to have a wider release so we wouldn't have to waste our time with the American remakes. Not that I would go out of my way to see them in the theatre - I could make my money go a lot farther. Go to the Bulk Barn and buy a couple pounds of chocolate flavoured chips.

Urg.

END

Directed by: Masayuki Ochiai. Written by: Luke Dawson based on the film written by Banjong Pisanthanakun, Sopon Sukdapisit and Parkpoom Wongpoom. Starring: Rachael Taylor, Joshua Jackson, Megumi Okina, David Denman, John Hensley, Maya Hazen, James Kyson Lee