3/4  Shutter #1 - Photo Finish
"Shutter" was the best J-Horror film I've seen in a while.

Although utilizing the over-familiar formula of scorned-spirit-haunting-through-technology, this one at least seems a little more clever than most. And I really liked the endin... (read full)

3/4  Shutter Quick Review
I watched this after seeing the American version. It's a good, suspenseful movie. The story was good and flowed well. I do prefer the American version just a bit more. I liked the little changes in it.

3/4  Shutter Quick Review
The Tartan Asia Extreme has released some great horror films and some duds - this is one of the better offerings. A little like the Ring or Grudge, but with its own twist - it builds, it jumps out at you - its pretty damn scary.

2/5 looks and feels like too many other recent films
  by Roland E. Zwick (Valencia, Ca USA)
**1/2

While on their honeymoon in Japan, a professional American photographer (Joshua Jackson) and his new bride (Rachel Taylor) run over a young woman who, for some inexplicable reason, just happens to be standing in the middle of a deserted country road in the dead of night. Soon, the victim - the obligatory pasty-faced, stringy-haired brunette in a nightie - is haunting the couple's pictures in the form of a "spirit photo," first hanging around the edges of the images, then - when the novelty of that wears off - appearing to the couple in corporeal form, and generally making a first-class nuisance of herself.

As thrillers go, there are more shutters than shudders in this slick Hollywood remake of a well-received Thai film from 2004. The storyline and imagery in this version are so reminiscent of other films in the genre that I kept feeling, as I was watching it, that I had seen this exact same movie before (and, no, I haven`t seen the original). The derivative nature of the film hampers our enjoyment of even the few moderately suspenseful scenes director Masayuki Ochiai has been able to wring out of this shopworn material. All told, the movie doesn't add up to much more than a handful of creepy photos combined with a soupcon of spirit-world hocus pocus - though the worm-turning twist ending is pretty darn satisfying, I must admit.


2/5 Should have been called Shudder. Obvious? Wait until you watch the movie.
  by Jason (Backwater, Alabama)
To put it quite simply, this movie didn't really catch my Eye. In fact, it didn't Ring true to the horror genre, and I may hold a Grudge.

I sincerely hope that everyone who watches this film catches onto my gist. This is yet another in the long line of unoriginal Japanese horror remakes in which the actors paint by the numbers, the "scares" can be seen from orbit, and several unintentionally comical scenes (more so than the gore or original scenes evoking, you know, horror) carry the film between the ubiquitous regurgitated clichés.

After their wedding, Ben Shaw (Joshua Jackson) and his wife Jane (Rachael Taylor) move to Japan to pursue Ben's career as a fashion photographer. After Jane plows through a random Japanese girl on the highway, and a subsequent investigation takes place, the couple proceed to their Honeymoon where Ben appears unfazed. Because nothing says Honeymoon like post vehicular manslaughter romance. Soon thereafter Ben's first big shoot goes awry, and the couple spend the next hour or so investigating perplexing white splotches on the photos that look mysteriously like reflections of dust particles or perhaps photographed moisture. Needless to say, Ben could have saved a lot of time if he had simply figured out how to focus his camera and use the F-Stop.

The predictable cause/effect unravels into a revenge plot in which a specter tightens sphincters, and I laughed at the unintentional comedy. The pinnacle of this hilarity takes place when Ben photographs himself only to find the Japanese spirit sitting on his shoulders. Naturally he wrestles himself like a bad Fight Club remake. I kid you not.

Insert random light and/or sound change for cheap (read: poorly done) shocks, random twist, aaand roll credits. It's fairly well done production-wise, but if you've seen one Japanese remake, you've seen this.

4/5 "Shutter" is not like other horror films
  by Bob Waskiewicz (Wintersville, Ohio United States)
It takes awhile to get into this movie but worth the wait.I was shocked at the ending,and wanted to see the film all over again to find out the clues I missed.

3/5 JUST YOUR AVERAGE AMERICAN REMAKE
  by fmwaalex (Austin, TX USA)
SHUTTER

This is another American remake of a film that was much better and came from another country. This time around it is based on the Thai film I do believe and much like the rest of the American remakes this one is not as good as the original. In fact if it was not for the ending this one would be really lacking because it just felt like, I don't know. I just did not get into this one as much as others and found it to be just your average remake. I guess there will never be a really good American remake at least for a while.

Ben and Jane are newlywed's that are moving to Japan for Ben's new job, he is a photographer. His friends helped him get the job and he could not be happier, until his wife starts to have ghostly images appear before her. It does not take long before the ghostly woman starts to cause bodily harm and now Ben is seeing her two. As time goes on all those around Jane start to feel the effects of this spirit because all is not what it seems. So as Jane struggles to find out what is going on people start to get picked off one by one as time runs.

This film suffers from just being too much like the rest of the remakes out there and therefore just feels old. The performances are good as far as I am concerned and there are some good moments like the ending. The thing is that is still not enough to save this movie from just being average. There are some decent deaths in this and the story is cool especially when every thing starts to come together. Rachael Taylor plays Jane and performs fine as does Joshua Jackson and the rest of the cast. David Denman and John Hensley are great in this and make for a good surprise along with Jackson's character.

Like I said this movie is not horrible it is just average and too much like every other remake out there. Still if you have not seen it a rental would be sufficient but I recommend the original film. Also I recommend the unrated version mainly because of the kills which I guess is the only reason there is a unrated version. To be honest I have not seen the rated version but it can't be better than the unrated.


4/5 Shutter (Widescreen) - Very good horror flick.
  by Keith Mirenberg (www.spaceanimations.org)
Shutter (Widescreen) was a good four star horror flick about Spirit Photography. This movie was made for my taste as I have always liked deliberately paced horror films which ultimately pay off. What I learned from seeing this film was that Spirit Photography has a solid niche in modern Japanese culture. The Japanese also have a unique interest in ghostly or spirit related tales. This goes far back into the Japanese tradition. Consequently, these films may receive the benefit of being taken more seriously in Japan, or Japanese audiences may posses greater ability to suspend disbelief. This movie was made by the same executive producer as "The Grudge" and "The Ring", which also were inspired by Asian films.

According to the very interesting documentary included with the movie, Japanese tradition describes both the protective spirit who may become an honored guardian of the family, and a restless or vengeful spirit who may linger on and be the center of a haunting. Such vengeful ghosts either wish to settle a score, or relate a message of murder and injustice. In any case, these movie makers were trying to present such a tale based on the original Asian version of the film "Shutter", along with some good modifications for American audiences. The result was a very interesting and entertaining movie.