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At this point, I’ve seen ghosts manage to get their revenge via video tapes, cellphones, storage lockers, and just about everything in between, but now it’s photographs and pictures, something that has a vibe reminiscent of the Fatal Frame video games (perhaps one of the best survival horror franchises out there in my opinion.) After an evening get together with some close friends, Tun (Ananda Everingham) and his girlfriend Jane (Natthaweeranuch Thongmee) accidentally hit a woman who is crossing the street. While Jane wants to go back and make sure she’s not hurt, Tun decides they need to leave immediately. Sometime later, Tun is taking graduation pictures and sees a strange, ghostly woman watching him from his camera lens, but she then disappears. While developing the photos, he notices the same woman and some rather mysterious images on his film. Jane has been seeing some rather odds things as well and the two learn that even his friends have been visited by a ghostly apparition, but they have also committed suicide leaving only Tun from the close group. As Jane continues to investigate, the truth become more and more evident and it involves a woman from Tun’s past, a former girlfriend, but there’s a secret that he’s not telling her. Shutter has a little bit of a different concept than some of the Asian ghost stories that have been popping up in the home video market. We generally tend to find a spirit looking for revenge, but it seldom seems to be against those the wronged them but instead they target hapless individuals who merely are in the wrong place at the wrong time. We’ve seen this with the Ringu films as well as Ju-on, but in this case we find a spirit that instead has decided to get revenge on those that did her wrong to begin with. However, that’s really about all I can fill you in as far as the details go with our ghost as it really would ruin the entire plot and the ending of the film. As the film deals with photography in part, though not completely, the movie does take some time to examine the idea of Spirit Photography, something that has been debated since the dawning of the camera itself. The movie does use images that have been declared authentic as well as fraudulent to illustrate the nature of what Tun and June and dealing with, but as the mystery deepens, we discover much more is going on. It’s not simply a ghost that has managed to find its way into the camera, but much more. The spirit however, who we learn is named Natre (Achita Sikamana) isn’t simply relegated to being captive in the photos and she begins to appear in Tun’s apartment, then other places as well. All of her appearances though are actually clues leading up to something, and the puzzle beings to come together piece by piece. As that happens however, not only does June begin to realize what is going on, but the ghostly appearances begin to increase as the two try and find a way to put the restless spirit at ease. What is quite typical in Shutter though is the appearance of Natre. Somewhere in the handbook of Asian ghost cinema, there is a rule that states that if a spirit has hair covering its face, even in part, it become more terrifying. The director and writers obviously decided this to be the gospel and Natre appears as a chalk white apparition, hair covering her face in part, and bloodied. The film even borrows some ideas from other Asian cinema, particularly Ju-on, even Ringu to a certain extent, but this is something to be expected as Asian ghost tales become more and more common. They are borrowing from one another time and time again. That’s not to say that Shutter isn’t without its moments however, and seeing Natre in the “Crawling ghost” position making her way down a fire escape ladder is one of the highlights of terror that the film has as well as having the spirit walking, not crawling, on a ceiling. Neither of these two incidents I recall seeing in any Asian ghost story yet, but then again, I haven’t seen all of them. For all the borrowed ideas though, Shutter isn’t necessarily a bad film, though I personally feel that it’s much more of a suspense-style cinematic event than a true horror film. Much of the film is spent just trying to piece together what is really going on and the scares that the film tries to convey are actually quite typical, though there is a nice bit with one of the photographs early on. Shutter is also more about atmosphere in most cases, and to try and give a feeling of unease, music tends to accompany these scenes quite well. I was a bit surprised to hear a Theremin used, and quite effectively. The instrument is something of a dead art with movies, and really hit its high point during the drive-in science-fiction era of Hollywood, but it’s nice to hear it used, and very appropriately. There are only three bonus features on the release, a bit less than what I have come to expect to find when it comes to tartan releases, but it’s better than having nothing more than a barebones release. The original Thai trailer for Shutter is included as well as a behind-the-scenes feature that examines four different sequences from the film and interviews with the cast and crew. It’s not a bad collection, but I have definitely would have enjoyed seeing just a little more on. Shutter isn’t exactly the fright-fest that I was hoping that it would be, but by no means is it a horrible ghost story either. There really aren’t many Thai horror films coming stateside as of yet, The Ghost of Mae Nak (also from Tartan, and actually directed by British director Mark Duffield) and the atrocious Bangkok Haunted are the only two that I’ve seen thus far, and whiel Shutter does borrow from a number of other sources, it’s much better than some of the blatant rip-off’s that have been popping up. Shutter may not be the type of movie that is going to keep you from wanting to use your camera, but it’s entertaining and for some, probably the sort of movie that might give them a few bad dreams. Just keep in mind that if your lady ever asks you to go back and check on a person that you think you’ve just hit, do it! -mike-
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