Shutter (2008)

American photographer and his sweet wife (Joshua Jackson and Rachael Taylor) find a new home in Tokyo thanks to a friend of theirs (David Denman) who sets them up in a building to both live and work, but they encounter a lingering, pestering spirit. This Onryō could very well have a reason for showing up (and ruining) Jackson's photographic sessions with models in/outdoors, as well as, constantly turning up to haunt them. It seems Jackson and Denman (and also their mutual friend, played by John Hensley) eventually recognize exactly who this spirit is and why she is hanging around to remind them of past sins. Formulaic, dull plotting (the sheen had then worn off the allure of American remakes of Asian horror so popular in the late 90s/early 2000s by 2008), and a severe lack of imagination leave this remake dying on the screen without much to grab us. An image of why Jackson feels such a weight on his shoulders seems to be one of the few scenes (I also dug the scene where Taylor visits the magazine popular for showing (and creating, especially) spirit photography, and is shown a room with authentic photographs of specters on film) that leave an impression at all, but even it has been better executed before. You can just revisit (or watch for the first time) the Thai Shutter film and experience better creeps than what are available in this uninspired remake. One of the shining examples of how remaking past films over a period of time can numb the senses of horror fans, eventually draining our desire to even watch their Asian counterparts. The finale, where Jackson goes to great lengths to remove what is haunting him, is the death knell in this rather worthless remake. Taylor tries her best to encourage our sympathies for her difficult situation (not of her making; she's a victim of circumstance, unaware of what her husband done), but her character is basically reactionary, while Jackson bores with a performance and character that aren't able to rise above the material. Encountering a dead body with flies out her mouth may be the lone scary scene in the whole film.

I'm not a fan of remakes, but I'll watch them out of interest if I see them on television (the main point being that I don't have to pay for the privilege). I absolutely loved the original Thai horror film, SHUTTER, and I thought that this film might be interesting because of the new setting (Japan) and the presence of a Japanese director to give it some Asian sensibility. Sadly, while the film does have some flashes of inspiration here and there, these are few and far between and for the most part it ploughs the same old tired and familiar furrows.DAWSON'S CREEK actor Joshua Jackson takes over the leading role, a newlywed photographer on assignment in Japan who brings along his unfeasibly pretty wife too. Of course, there's hidden tragedy in his past, relayed to us via some plot contrivances and coincidences, involving his ex-girlfriend Megumi (played by Megumi Okina, who gives the only decent performance in the whole movie). Every major set-piece already happened in SHUTTER, especially the excellent twist ending from that film, so I found this movie bereft of surprise, originality and inspiration.It's well shot, but it feels hollow. Jackson plays a bland, self-loving character who frankly bored me, and his wife just seemed dim. The scares are signposted far in advance, and the old schtick involving spirit photography was frankly tiresome. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more had it been a truly original movie, but like most remakes this one just seems to have no point in existing.

Having watched the original the day before, I was intrigued to see how it had been adapted to a different audience.I was sorely disappointed. Maybe that is an understatement...They missed the unbelievable weave of the story and turned this into a disjointed hack.Ironically a movie involving a photographer was given cinematography like this. The original has so much in the way of great cinematography that it is sometimes distracting.Not only did they miss all the brilliance of the original, they even took the story to Japan. If I was involved in any way with the original I would be incensed.I would strongly recommend that anyone thinking of watching this get the original rather.Shame on the producers of this drivel. Shame on me for watching this till the end in the hope that it would somehow get better.

This is a richer cousin of films like "One Missed Call", where Hollywood remakes a successful Asian horror film trying to gather more audiences since there are people in the world who hates reading captions of foreign films, so they film a English version and everybody gets happy (or not which is my case). And the similarity between both films does not stop right there. This is also a story where ghosts from the past comes back to life to scare and kill away a bunch of people, deaths that seems random and with no connection but there is one goal to be achieved by these ghosts. Instead of an cell-phone, the ghosts come out of photographs in bizarre moments; spirits ruining the photos taken by Joshua Jackson while enjoying honeymoon with his wife (Rachael Taylor), and also taking photos (that will be ruined too!) for his work making a great advertisement for a big company.Their problem started after accidentally run over a girl in the woods, and it looks like the girl's spirit is chasing them and killing some of their friends. The photographer's wife decides to investigate ghost appearances trying to understand what's behind all this, becoming an expert out of nowhere."Shutter" has an style that is becoming a trend in horror films with a unfair fight between real world and imaginary world or people versus spirits, where one can attack and the other can only run and hide; Father Merrin and Van Helsing are not here to help them, and charismatic and intelligent guys like them does not exist in films like these and that is a shame. Worst than this: it's not a scary film and not even funny. It's just morose. But the plot twist at the ending, reminding of "Ghost Story" (1981) was amazing, lift up the movie a little bit, but not enough to make a good film. The main couple has a charm and a good presence but that's it, with the help of embarrassing special effects they'll be scared for life with a strange ghost behind their backs. Bad, bad, bad. 4/10