[6.50/10] Shutter (2004)

Shutter (2004)

"Shutter" tells the story of a young photographer couple who accidentally hit a young woman while driving home from a party. They leave her to die, but have second thoughts and go to inspect the crime scene, only to discover that no one has any idea what they are talking about. Then, mysterious anomalies begin to show up in their photos. The plot is pretty basic and predictable and isn't anything to write home about either. The reason? Well, the material is way too familiar already. While there are a few suspenseful scenes that border on creatively scary, most of the movie is pretty average. "Shutter" mostly relies on music-induced boo scares, rather than creepy atmosphere, and the ghost itself really isn't that frightening. The seemingly similar long-haired female ghost we've seen in many Asian horror films before (Ringu, Dark Water and The Grudge to name a few), already started to become too predictable, rather boring and even annoying. The ending was completely illogical, but I somewhat liked it. The final shot is probably film's best moment. Technically, "Shutter" is really well-made - some lovely camera angles, good sound effects and solid production values. The film is also believably-acted. Ananda Everingham and Natthaweeranuch Thongmee, both deliver decent performances. Overall, while most of the scares are cheap and obvious and the story way too plain and cliched, "Shutter" is still an entertaining, nicely-crafted little ghost movie.

• My Rating: 6.50/10
• Rotten Tomatoes: 56% (5.3/10)
• IMDb: 7.3/10