Patman

"Shutter" is a remake of a Thai film, and is very similar in tone to "The Grudge", "The Eye", "The Ring", you get the idea. But was it a good idea to remake yet another Asian horror thriller? Not really.

Joshua Jackson and Rachel Taylor play Ben and Jane Shaw, recent newlyweds. Ben is a photographer who gets a swanky photo assignment gig in Japan, so Jane accompanies him soon after their truncated honeymoon. Weird things happen, ghosts start showing up in his photos, restless sleep ensues, Jane is getting spooked and sees things that cause her confusion and anxiety, the mystery continues until things fall into place, but at what cost to the Shaws?

Tonally, the film's a spookless bore, and the script is underwritten (or it feels like they really did their best to stretch out an hour's worth of material to almost 90 minutes). Rachel Taylor (the smart blonde from Transformers) is nice to look at, but after 20 minutes, you really need her to do something more than just look around and be scared or confused by noises and ghosts on photos. Polaroid must have loved the product placement in this film.

I give it 1.75 stars, or a grade of C-.

GoldenJCJ

I haven't seen it yet but after seeing the TV spots I'm wondering if a huge spoiler was given away.

SterlingBen

Polaroid is dead so I don't think they really cared about the product placement.
But man now I know why I try to steer clear of PG-13 movies. Nothing takes you out of a movie more than the constant prattle of teenage girls, even if they were jail-bate hot.

GoldenJCJ