Shutter

A heavy burden.

American remakes of Asian horror films have mostly struggled to win grace and favour with horror fans. Shutter is no exception, it has been met with the usual howls of derision, claims of it being pointless, loosing the horror essence of the original and etc. But what for someone like me who hasnt seen the original?

I found Shutter to be much like how I found The Ring, the Naomi Watts starrer from 2002, a very effective chiller with a solid mystery to be unravelled at the core. The ghost is creepy as are the various photographic links, the scares handled professionally by the makers, and the finale pays off with a startlingly chilling revelation that freaked me out; and Im a middle aged man!

Its far from perfect, t...

Shutter takes Polaroid remnants of the original without the stunning flash. This is a peculiar remake. During the towering heights of Hollywood westernising world-renowned Asian horrors, mostly from Japan and South Korea, Japanese director Ochiai opted to alter the story of Thailands arguably most famous eponymous horror with American actors, set in Japan. Western audiences apparently wouldnt be spooked if the ghost haunting the main characters wasnt a pasty white Japanese girl with luscious black hair and masses amount of eye liner. Its a cluster of cultures, and whilst the end result isnt exactly terrible, its far from being tolerably good. Because much like The Grudge, One Missed Call and Pulse, the underlying sense of pointlessness beco...