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Shutter
(2008)
 
It's getting to the point where I feel like I don't even need to
watch an American remake of an Asian horror film. I can just assume
it's inferior and be absolutely correct in that assessment. Take this
film as further proof of that.
Photographer Ben (Joshua Jackson) and his new bride Jane (Rachael
Taylor) travel to Japan for a honeymoon before he has to begin a new
work assignment in Tokyo. While driving to Mount Fuji, Jane
accidentally runs over a young woman (Megumi Okina) who suddenly
appears in the middle of the road. No body is found, but soon strange
flashes of light begin to appear in Ben's photographs and weird things
happen to the couple, leading Jane to believe that they're being
haunted by the young woman's spirit.
The original Thai film released in 2004 was one of the more
terrifying and palpitation-inducing films I've had the pleasure of
viewing. This remake is anything but. Despite being an American
production, the director is Japan's Masayuki Ochiai (Saimin,
Kansen), whose flat direction drains all of the suspense out of the
story. I'm not surprised by this result, because I wasn't very
impressed by his earlier work on 1999's Saimin, which had the same
flaws and was an unscary mess. Instead of using atmosphere and
carefully executed camera work to generate scares like the original
did, he resorts to cheap jump scenes that we've seen too many times
before.
The screenplay by Luke Dawson is generally faithful to the original
film's story, but he's managed to take something that was
unpredictable and scary and transform it into something that is
predictable and boring. It's been dumbed down, over-explained, and
generally made as obvious as possible for its intended teenaged
American audience.
Jackson is too wooden and Taylor too histrionic as the protagonists.
Okina, previously a victim of a ghost in Ju-on: The Grudge, is
effective as the ghostly antagonist. The cast also includes David
Denman and John Hensley as Ben's friends, Maya Hazen as Ben's
assistant Seiko, and James Kyson Lee as Seiko's ex-boyfriend who
publishes a magazine dealing with the phenomenon of spirit photography.
Shutter is a dull, unimaginative remake of a really good horror
film. It should only prove frightening to someone who has never seen
a horror film before, let alone a good one like the one this is based
on. Take my usual advice in these matters and just watch the original
on DVD.
-Danielle
Ní Dhighe
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All contents ©
2004-2007 Thoughtsonfilm.com |
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Director:
Masayuki
Ochiai
Writer: Luke
Dawson
Starring: Joshua
Jackson, Rachael Taylor, Megumi Okina, David
Denman, John Hensley, Maya Hazen, James Kyson Lee
Distributor: 20th
Century Fox
Runtime: 85
min
Rating: R
Release Date: March
21, 2008
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