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Shutter
20th Century Fox


6.2

based on 12 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 32 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for terror, disturbing images, sexual content and language

Starring Joshua Jackson, Rachael Taylor, David Denman, James Kyson Lee, and John Hensley

For photographer Ben and his new wife Jane, his new assignment--a lucrative fashion shoot in Tokyo--was supposed to be a kind of working honeymoon. With this exotic professional opportunity and the limitless possibilities of a new marriage, Ben and Jane arrive in Japan. But as they make their way on a mountain road leading to Mt. Fuji, their new life together comes to, literally, a crashing halt. Their car smashes into a woman standing in the middle of the road who has materialized out of nowhere. Upon regaining consciousness after the accident, Ben and Jane cannot find any trace of the girl Jane believes she hit. Shaken by the accident and by the girl's disappearance, Ben and Jane arrive in Tokyo, where Ben begins his glamorous assignment. Having worked in Japan before and fluent in the language, Ben is comfortable there, and he eagerly reunites with old friends and colleagues. Jane, a newcomer to the city, feels very much like a stranger in a strange land as she makes tentative, unsettling forays through the city. Meanwhile, Ben has discovered mysterious white blurs--eerily evocative of a human form--that have materialized on an entire day's work from the expensive photo shoot. Jane's concerns escalate as she believes the blurs in Ben's photos are the dead girl from the road, who is now seeking vengeance for them leaving her to die... (20th Century Fox)

GENRE(S):	Horror \| Mystery \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Luke Dawson
DIRECTED BY:	Masayuki Ochiai
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 15, 2008 Theatrical: March 21, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Surprisingly effective supernatural tale in which there's more to fear from the living than the dead.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

Shutter has the look and feel of a proper J-horror film. Tokyo is seen as a series of gloomy gun metal skies. And the acting is more subdued than in Hollywood horror movies.

Boston Globe Michael Hardy

If Shutter is any indication, the reputation of professional photographers is still on the wane. Not only are photographs creepy, the film suggests, but so are photographers.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The photography hook gives Shutter the potential to be a genuinely creepy ghosts-in-the-machine story like the original "Pulse," or better still, a horror twist on "Blowup." But one effective scene lit solely by a camera flash isn't enough to rescue this from the J-horror slushpile.

Entertainment Weekly Clark Collis

Seems like a technological regression.

The New York Times Andy Webster

The director, Masayuki Ochiai, conjures textbook J-horror miasma: clammy clinical interiors; overcast skies; diffuse cityscapes. He also gives Alfred Hitchcock a nod, with a sequence nakedly stolen from “Psycho,” and draws unease from Jane’s disorientation in a foreign city. Tokyo, in fact, may be the movie’s most fascinating player.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Genuine scares are few and far between, and the climactic explanation for the ghost's appearances comes as something less than a revelation.

Variety Dennis Harvey

A blandly cast and crafted remake of the same-titled 2004 Thai pic that itself emulated J-horror norms, which seemed a lot fresher back then.

San Francisco Chronicle Andy Webster

Fans of J-horror (for Japan, where the genre was born; its conventions have since spread to South Korea and Thailand) will find Shutter familiar; others may just doze.

Village Voice Luke Y. Thompson

Ostensibly a remake of a Thai film--by a Japanese director with a Hollywood cast--this plays more like a video copy of "The Ring" that’s been so degraded that all the good bits are no longer visible.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Asian horror remakes are typically not screened for critics, and Shutter is no exception. The studios know what they have: watered-down, lifeless shells of motion pictures devoid of characters, drama, or anything remotely resembling horror.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

The very Thai-specific charms that made the original Shutter such an unforeseen, unpredictable delight when I first saw it – and when I screened it again, last night – are almost entirely absent here, eclipsed by the annoying blonde highlights of Taylor, ex-Transformer babe and forever, as the Thai say, farang.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.2 (out of 10) based on 32 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Sean C. gave it a2:
Pretty cookie cutter with the overacting by all the major players. The films doesn't seem to want to scare. Pretty boring... If you really want to see it, wait till dvd and let your friend buy it, then borrow it. Don't waste your money.

Jeremy S. gave it a9:
I liked it, its not really a horror, like I figured it would be, but its still good.

Martin C. gave it a9:
As far as Asian remakes go this is one of the best ones - much better than films like Pulse. Creepy atmosphere, great score, definitely worth checking out.

Patrick L. gave it an8:
A pretty good remake! In some ways, better than the original! Critics seem to miss the point!!

David W gave it a3:
Easy to predict what's going to happen, this movie had nothing new, lame plot.

R M gave it a2:
This movie made me and all my friends stand up out of our chairs!!!....and get a refund......not a good movie.

Chad S. gave it a2:
She ain't heavy, she's my crazy ex-Japanese girlfriend. Benjamin(Joshua Jackson) has neck pains, and a past. He and his blushing bride aren't exactly the sharpest pencils in the box. Jane(Lisa Whelchel, I mean, Rachael Taylor) looks genuinely surprised that her hubbie's old girlfriend is in the same shape as Norman Bates' mother. That's why they call it spirit photography, honey. Jane is either xenophobic, or stupid, or a stupid xenophobic. She wonders aloud if the Japanese eat ice cream. She also thinks the clothing that the woman she (not "we", Jane, YOU hit that pedestrian, not HE, your husband, who was asleep at the time) ran over was wearing clothing that seemed inappropriate(Jane, you're in JAPAN) at the time. "Shutter" isn't scary, but that's because the film doesn't work very hard. It takes short cuts. At Benjamin's place of employment, Jane shows her ghostly photographs to Benjamin's assistant, whose ex-boyfriend just happens to be the editor of a spiritual photography magazine. When "Shutter" isn't being scary, it's busy not being "Lost in Translation", too. Jane's walking tour of the Tokyo pavement recalls Scarlett Johannson in the Sofia Coppola movie. Scarlett Johannson went to a Shintoist temple. Jane goes to a pachinko parlour, and takes a picture...of HERSELF! You'll shudder at "Shutter" with exasperation, not fright. But this will probably be the only chance you'll ever get to see an ex-cast member of "Dawson's Creek" speak Japanese.

Shutter 20th Century Fox

Shutter
20th Century Fox