Shutter (2008)

Shutter

Directed By: Masuyuki Ochiai

Cast: Joshua Jackson, Rachel Taylor, Megumi Okina, David Denman, John Hensley

Reviewed by: Ken Mooney

Rating: Two-Out-Of-Five Bananas

Shutter should be a simple enough story: newlyweds Ben and Jane Shaw (Joshua Jackson and Rachel Taylor) are in Tokyo, where photographer Ben is working on a fashion shoot. En route, the couple’s car hits a girl who vanishes from the scene moments later, but strange figures in Ben’s photographs lead the couple to believe they’re being haunted by the girl’s ghost. So where does it go wrong?

The problem with Shutter is that it tries to be all things to everyone, and comes up ultimately lacking, feeling like nothing more than a recycled The Ring, with some elements of I Know What You Did Last Summer thrown into the mix. There’s actually a somewhat good story in there somewhere, but with so much piled on top of it that it barely shines through.

This is really a film that relies far too much on the scary visual and the use of creepy music or sound effects than anything really scary: there’s some potential, but it finds itself tagged on at the end as an attempted plot twist, only created because the plot steers away from it, all in an attempt to stretch the story out and allow for some more effects. It’s a meandering point that’s one of many unnecessary additions that, attempting to flesh the film out, merely dilutes it: the inclusion of Denman and Hensley’s characters cheapen any dramatic possibilities, and the film’s odd setting in Tokyo, despite being a joint Japanese/American production, is a needless complication that serves only to isolate Jane (a thread limited to a montage of her looking like a tourist.)

All these inconsistencies are brought to bear on the characters too: we’re never really given any reason to care for either Ben or Jane, nor their relationship, introduced somewhat heavy-handedly through the film’s opening minutes. We know they must be madly in love because we get two sex scenes uncomfortably early on in the film, long before we’ve invested anything in them or their relationship, yet moments where they seek comfort in each other turn tense for no apparent reason. The ghostly girl, adeptly played by Megumi Okina, flits wordlessly back and forth from menacing glee to a frail, sympathetic character, both of which suit the motivations her character is given, but neither of which feel right in context.

To be honest, all the actors do well with what they’re given, which isn’t much. Taylor manages to flesh out her character with a few nuances, proving more than capable of conveying the full requisite of horror-film-heroine emotions needed: her facial expression alone, during one dining scene, foreshadows where the film eventually ends. Jackson, on the other hand, isn’t given much space to stretch in a role that isn’t a million miles away from his tenure as Pacey in Dawson’s Creek.

It all adds up to make Shutter quite a disappointing experience, never quite filling any of the shoes it sets out to. Nonetheless, if you like your horror frustratingly lacking in substance and consisting only of jarring jumps so clearly sign-posted you have time for a bathroom break, you might actually appreciate what this has to offer.

Verdict:

Either wait for the DVD and then borrow it from someone foolish enough to have bought it, or wait until it’s on TV…then record it and watch it later.

Originally published on FrankTheMonkey.com