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Topic: Shutter (2008)
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Stu Jamieson
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 524
From: Buccan, Qld, Australia
Registered: Jan 2008
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posted 05-16-2008 07:05 AM
**SPOILERS**
Based on the Thai horror movie of the same name which is in turn clearly inspired by the Japanese Ringu, Shutter is Hollywood's latest foray into Asian horror remakes and it's safe to say that it's on par with every other attempt with the exception, perhaps, of The Ring which was actually quite decent.
American newlyweds, Ben (Joshua Jackson) and Jane (Aussie Rachael Taylor capitalising on her Transformers success), are honeymooning in Japan and whilst driving their car down a dark, lonely country road, they run over the spooky chick from Ringu (You know the one? Thin, demure Japanese girl with a pale complexion and straight, black, long-fringed hair?) As per obligatory ghost story conventions the Ringu chick's corpse mysteriously disappears but her apparition continually reappears to torment the happy couple; firstly as a ghostly phantom in the couple's holiday snaps and then as physical manifestations in fleeting shadows on subways, photographic dark rooms and indeed anywhere a shadow may be lurking.
Similarly to 2005's White Noise, Shutter takes an intriguing premise (that of psychic photography) and extrapolates it into the most ludicrously implausible storyline imaginable. In this story a car can crash into a tree and then drive away seemingly undamaged, a solitary chair sitting in the middle of a vacant, open-doored apartment is somehow inherently spooky and a ghost can fly through your camera lens and..........well, I don't know exactly what it does but apparently it kills you.
The prime moment of incredulity, however, occurs when the "twist" is revealed and Ben realises that he somehow overlooked the fact that the dead girl who has been spooking him for the first three quarters of the movie actually kind of looks like his psychotic ex-girlfriend whom he arranged to have date-raped by his pals! Whoops, I just gave away the climax there. Never mind, by this stage you'll pretty much have it all figured out anyway. The great irony, however, is that the portrayal of this wholly predictable outcome is also the films only genuinely horrifying moment; all other attempts to separate us from our wits consist of creaky horror devices whose sole purpose is to creep us out rather than have any intrinsic connection to the plot or premise.
What this all boils down to is a simple and ineffectual ghost story which commits the most heinous crime possible for a horror movie: it's predictable and boring!
3 out of 10.
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