Shutter

Review by Clint Morris
Interview: Star of Shutter - Rachael Taylor

Having just sat through the remake of Prom Night, with its indiscernible suspense, lack of horror, and untraceable impetus, Shutter (also a remake; though it’s a re-tool of a Japanese film, not an American classic, so it may warrant being remade) wasn’t exactly top of the must-see list.

In fact, whatever junk Martin Lawrence has out would’ve probably been higher up than it.

Well Color Me Badd, as the tragic 90s group named themselves (and yes, they did spell ‘Badd’ with a double ‘D’), Shutter wasn’t actually as painful as stabbing myself in the eye with a kebab stick after all!

Though as cheesy as mama’s macaroni, and not a shade on the great fright-flicks of yesteryear (Wes Craven and John Carpenter – anyone else miss ‘em?), Shutter at least knows what a horror film needs to encompass in order to exist.

Unlike the family-friendly Prom Night (PG-rated horror movies seem to be all the rage right now) this one comes packed with scares, suspense and, most importantly, a colour palette that has the red – as in blood - turned up to 11.

It’s a rarity for a horror film to actually have horror in it these days, even rarer for one to actually be good.

The first English-language film from director, Shutter fixes on a couple of newlyweds Ben (Joshua Jackson) and Jane Shaw (Rachael Taylor) who’ve travelled to Tokyo from New York, where photojournalist Ben is looking into a job opportunity. While driving on a shadowy thoroughfare at night, the couple runs over a strange woman who seems to appear out of nowhere and can't be found after the accident. Over the next few days, they begin to see, what they believe, to be her spectre.

If Shutter is let down by anything, it’s the script by Luke Dawson – it isn’t snappy enough or original enough to draw in the viewer to any great degree. And whilst the flick does include some good scares, even those scenes come across as robbed riffs from other, similar films like The Ring and The Grudge.

Having said that, this is much better than, say, the aforementioned The Grudge if only because it actually remains pretty loyal to its predecessor (which isn’t too hard, considering the original film wasn’t that hot), even improving on some of the weaker moments from the original (again, I stress, the original wasn’t that hot), and doesn’t try to squeeze into the mould of a teenage film.

Yup, it’s nice to see a film that attempts to appeal to horror fans as a whole – not just those who chew gum, listen to Britney when they’re working, and blush whenever they cross eyes with Jesse McCartney at an in-store appearance.

3 out of 5

Shutter
Australian release: 15th May, 2008
Cast: Rachael Taylor, Joshua Jackson
Director: Masayuki Ochiai