Shutter- mini review

[DefJeff]

I've read alot of hype for it on the 'net and have seen virtually no discussion about it on this forum, so I decided to make this topic since I recently picked up the R3 disc.

Ok, this movie is a completely by the numbers Asian horror film. The plot follows the same old people are haunted, people find out who the ghost is, people lay the ghost to rest so it stops haunting formula. The twist here is that the ghost is partially haunting a man through his photographs, by either outright appearing in them or distorting them. Nothing new is really brought to the table here, since if you basically replace the camera/film with a celphone, you have Phone. A full plot summary can be found over at IMDB

Now you know what, I do love a good ghost in these movies though. I can overlook a films flaws when there is an awesome ghost hauting these people and scaring the shit out of me (see: Juon), but sadly this film fails here too. The ghost not only looks silly (check out the part she is on the cars hood for a huge laugh!) but virtually every scare is achieved the same way. By this I mean ghost is spotted, person is scared and ghost vanishes but a strange presence is in the air, ghost appears right behind/next to the person, yawn. How many times does this happen in the film? I lost count, but I will admit, all the scares being pretty much the same or not, the film did get one good jump out of me.

Sadly this next complaint has to be in a spoiler because, well it is one, but it's also one of the films annoying problems. In this film they

Spoiler: actually kill off 2 of the main characters

and then mentions it later on, in a matter of fact way

Spoiler: "Why are you all commiting suicide?" "huh" "Your two other friends, they committed suicide too!" OH WOW THEY DID? YA DON'T SAY

. Ungh.

Chalk all that up with lack of atmosphere and some real asshole main characters (minus the leads girlfriend, Jane) and you have a pretty lame film.

Watching this was a bit frustrating because there were moments that really could've been cool if they took a different approach to the scares and the plot had some great potential if they just went somewhere different and didn't stick so close to "what is known to work". Dwatts said in another thread that he felt most of the good Asian horror has been released already and now we are getting a second wave of knockoffs, or something to that extent. You know, I am beginning to think he might be onto something.

For those of you still interested in picking up this disc, the one I got is R3 NTSC with English subs. Surprisingly, the menus are all in English and the extra features have subs. The DVD also comes in a slipcase-box thingie that has some magic eye feature going on on it. If you use the included paper camera to look at the box, you will see the ghost pop out. Neat.

If anyone has seen this film, I just have a quick question; who's the girl that was hit by the car at the beginning of the film? Is it some random girl

Spoiler: ment to throw you off the trail of who the ghost really is?

or

Spoiler: is she actually the ghosts first appearance?

Ouch, sorry you didn't like that one. I really enjoyed it, but mainly because of the performances by the two leads. I thought they were fabulous, so I was able to just buy everything.

And as to your question, I thought that

Spoiler: the girl that was hit was the ghost's first appearance, hence why no one had any information on the crash later on.

[Paff]

It's on my list, but I haven't seen it yet.

One of the things you gotta consider is that the Thai film industry is just kind of starting up. Right now, it's definitely a lot of copying, but as world-wide attention starts to focus on Thailand (and people are definitely taking notice) I think they'll eventually be forced to be more original.

My favorite Thai flick is called My Suicide (aka Suicide Me), which is a romantic comedy with a great horror subplot. Open parodies of The Eye and other Asian horror movies. No DVD with English subs available yet, but if one is ever released (or if you're able to understand Thai), definitely get it.

Here is another review, just in case someone wants a little more specific detail on the extras et al.

[maskull]

I watched this one last night and I have to say that I really liked it. It had a lot of the typical Asian horror stuff in in (that worked), but it also had this feeling of dread throughout, perhaps because you get to like the two main characters so much, and you don't want bad things to happen to them. Plus the ending and the explanation of why this all happpened, cleans things up quite nicely. Not to mention, the ending was really freaky to me.

I can't believe Jeff didn't like when she was on the car. That made me jump. Some jump scares in this one, but also some excellent atmosphere and other types of chills.

Did I mention the two leads? Both are excellent actors, you really care about their characters, the male lead was excellent as the man with a secret, and the female was a cute(!!!!!) but strong character. They really made this movie.

Anyway, sorry for this disjointed post, I just woke up and my brain's still firing up. Whatever, definitely give this one a chance if you like asian horror.

[BloodMan]

Finally got around to watching this and enjoyed it too. Sure its got all the shit common in those movies... but it was still a good enough flick. The closing actually had me kinda... sad. The second time you watch it... more things come out and its even more enjoyable I think.

[Paff]

Originally Posted by BloodMan

The second time you watch it... more things come out and its even more enjoyable I think.

Good to hear. I was pretty unimpressed on first viewing, but I'll always give it a second shot. Hell, I spent enough on the DVD, I might as well.