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Shutter (2004)
Admittingly I'm not the biggest fan in the world of movies with the scary Asian ghost girl. With that said, I am a fan of some of those movies, but it's a genre that's been done to death (no pun intended). Now, the one thing that I was really surprised about while watching Shutter is how little that actually bothered me. So I had to ask myself, why didn't this one annoy me to the point of wanting to set myself on fire? Well the answer was surprising to me, and you'll see why in the following review.
Shutter is the story of Tun and Jane, a young couple who one night they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. They strike a girl crossing the road with their car, and decide that it's better to flee than to try and help. The only problem is that Tun, a photographer is starting to see the girl they hit that night in photographs that he has taken. Not only that but Jane is seemingly having visions of the girl in her dreams as well. But there's a lot more to the story, and nothing is exactly what it seems. I could tell you more, but trust me it's worth checking this one out for. I was really surprised by this one, mainly because in these Asian ghost movies I've seen that are like this certainly aren't this slick and compelling. I thought that the story itself not only was solid, but it made for the probability of the things that happen in the story. Say for example Tun, our photographer. When you are dealing with photographs and darkrooms, you have a pretty cool template to create your scares, which Shutter does very well. Not only that but creepy images and coloring can be played with to the films advantage. That is what sets this movie away from it's other scary ghost girl counterparts. That and the way the story unfolds, which I was really surprised at how violent the story at hand really was...and it was well done.
Technically Shutter is a pretty well shot film, that has some really cool style to it. I give director Porkpoom Wongpoom a lot of credit for actually trying to make the film scary. With the style he used in the film he used it to the story's advantage which was a big part of why this movie works. The sound was great, which I can't stress how important that is in a ghost movie more so than any other subgenre of horror. Hell, sometimes in these movies a scare itself is totally dependent on the sound of the film. If the sound doesn't hold up neither does the scare, and this film obviously wouldn't have worked as well without it.
Now don't get me wrong, this movie isn't perfect by a long shot. I found it's 95 minute running time to be a bit too much as I felt a good 10/15 minutes could've been trimmed and it wouldn't have skipped a beat. Also, there is a lot of the same thing in the beginning of the movie as well. Kind of like the movie was dwelling on something that wasn't there, and you can tell. But when the story progresses it reaches a point where you find out what's going on, and has you wanting more. So maybe I shouldn't say that the movie was too long, just the story wasn't as even as it could've been.
Overall though I would recommend Shutter to fans who maybe sick and tired of the little Asian ghost girl movies. All other horror fans would probably want to check this out too as it's one of those movies that actually does it right. But even if you are remotely a fan of these films this one would be a must see for you folks. Plain and simple it's an Asian ghost movie done right.
Rating - **1/2
-Ed Demko
