Shutter (2008) starring Joshua Jackson, Rachael Taylor, Megumi Okina, David Denman directed by Masayuki Ochiai Movie Review

Shutter (2008)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Joshua Jackson and Rachael Taylor in Shutter (2008)

Snappy it isn't

They were young, in love and in Tokyo on their honeymoon, taking photos when they should have been having more fun than that but what ever floated Americans Ben (Joshua Jackson) and Jane Shaw's (Rachael Taylor) boat. But their fun stopped when one night Jane briefly took her eyes off of the road and is convinced she ran down a girl although there was no sign of one when they climb out from their crashed car. At their apartment strange things start to happen as Jane starts having visions of the girl she thinks she run down whilst her image appears in their honeymoon photos. Ben who doesn't believe in ghosts tries to use logic to stop Jane from panicking until he has an encounter with the dead girl.

I never got into the whole Asian horror scene, the whole thing of scary Asian girl with shiny black hair and sad faces appearing from nowhere did nothing what so for ever me and when Hollywood jumped on the bandwagon with a series of remakes I was even less enthusiastic about them. As such when I found myself with "Shutter" to watch, an American remake of a Thai horror movie, I expected very little and to be frank got very little especially when it came to ghostly frights.

Now whilst "Shutter" started to play out a strange thought came across my mind, has someone set up a talent agency for scary looking Asian girls who can deliver that cold ghost face or maybe there is just one actress who has made a niche for herself as the ghost girl in these horror movies. If you can't get my gist what I am basically saying is that despite having a different set of characters and a different situation "Shutter" ends up familiar with the same ghost girl thing going on.

But the familiarity of "Shutter" is not the only issue and here we have a movie which plays with the rules as it feels like with a non discriminating ghost who doesn't care whether they appear in the photos from an old camera which uses film or the image in the screen of a modern digital camera. But the biggest issue with all this is that it isn't scary enough and in truth "Shutter" often feels like a movie which is more reliant on Rachel Taylor and her looks rather than the actual story.

What this all boils down to is that considering it is supposed to be a scary movie "Shutter" comes up seriously short on the scares. It just feels like a factory made movie, going through the motions and relying heavily on the looks of Rachael Taylor to keep you engaged in the drama.


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