Shutter - Review

Director: Masayuki Ochiai
Writer: Luke Dawson
Starring: Rachael Taylor/Joshua Jackson
Runtime: 1 hr 25 minutes

I have a confession to make: horror movies freak me out. I love them, but secretly I am a behind-closed-fingers kind of guy. When I was kid, I didn't sleep well for 10 days after watching The Exorcist on VHS. I've since seen the film upwards of a dozen times, and it still scares the hell out of me when the priest goes back into the bedroom.

Basically, if a horror movie doesn't scare me, then it is not a good horror movie. Shutter is pretty terrible.

I could go on at length about what a rip-off it is (it is), and how it's time to give the Asian horror re-makes a rest (ditto). But I won't, because I don't think I'll have to. If Shutter doesn't put the kibosh on J-horror (Japanese horror, or Thai, in Shutter's case) for a little while, then nothing will.

Let me sum it up for you in five seconds: Shutter takes The Grudge, The Ring, The Grudge 2, The Ring 2, throws them in a blender, and then chucks the goo onto the screen. As with all Japanese horror films, there's a creepy dead girl with long hair and it keeps hanging in her eyes. Her face is painted ashen grey, she never speaks, and she wants everyone to die a horrible death, which they do. End of movie.

There isn't much to say for Shutter, besides this amazing fact: I liked the ending. Not because it was merciful for the audience to leave the room, but because the ending was genuinely creepy and had some small surprises. Besides that, the film is a stinker.

If you want to see a great horror movie based on Asian material, take another look at The Ring. It is hands down the best of the J-horror remakes, and it still remains my favorite shocker of the last decade.

Photo: Yahoo Movies