Review of Shutter (2004) by Christopher A — 21 Apr 2010

Tagline: The most terrifying images are the ones that are real.

Summary:

In Bangkok, after celebrating a drinking party with his closest friends, photographer Tun and his girlfriend Jane have a car accident on the road, with Jane hitting a girl. Tun does not allow her to help the girl and they run away, leaving the girl lying on the road. When Tun reveals his latest pictures, he finds some mysterious shadows, while the couple is systematically haunted by the ghost of the girl. Tun investigates and finds that the victim was his former shy and weird girlfriend Natre, who studied with him in the college. Later Jane discloses deep and hidden secrets about the relationship of Natre, Tun and his friends.

My Review:

Nothing kills a fresh idea like over-familiarity and Asian horror movies are having to face this problem more and more lately. It's especially difficult with a film like Thai chiller Shutter, where a casual glance at the story might have many stifling a yawn or exclaiming "Oh for heaven's sake! Not another tale of a venegful, long-haired female spook crawling along the floor!" However, as someone once sang, it ain't what you do, it's the way you do it, and while Shutter sticks fairly closely to the standard formula, it's got one major advantage on its side - it's seriously damn scary!

The story follows photographer Tun and his girlfriend Jane as they accidentally drive over a girl while on their way home from a night out, and then run off in a panic. Days later eerie images keep appearing on Tun's photographs, and Jane is catching spectral glimpses of a mysterious, screaming girl. So far, so predictable, but what looks like a cross between The Ring and I Know What You Did Last Summer soon heads in a very different direction, as a series of of deaths start occuring, and it turns out that Tun may know more about the haunting than he's letting on...

Slickly made and blessed with effective performances, Shutter proves you don't have to re-invent the wheel to make a creepy ghost story - you just need to get the ingredients right. After the boring, random horrors we get these days, mainly US remakes, it's a relief to find a ghost story where the spectre isn't just a series of random "Boo!" events, but a character in its own right, and where the heroes are allowed to be complex and seriously flawed. Among the steals from The Omen, The Grudge and The Ring, there are also some inventive set pieces - including Tun getting trapped by the ghost in a pitch-black studio, where flash-bulbs are randomly going off - and a selection of grisly shocks. Building to a suitably nasty climax, it's a gripping, emotionally engaging thriller that may be deriative, but also shows that Asian horror is still able to deliver plenty of bone-chilling shocks.

The US remake of Shutter relocates the action to Tokyo. It stars Dawson''s Creek's Joshua Jackson with a supporting role from James Kyson Lee (Heroes' Ando).