Film Reviews

Shutter

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: John Hensley
• Details: US / 85mins (16)

Someone somewhere still thinks that churning out remakes of Asian horror films is a good idea, despite the sub-genre peaking years ago with The Ring. Shutter's plot centres on a ridiculously happy, recently married couple Ben (Jackson) and Jane, (Taylor) who move to Tokyo soon after their wedding to accommodate Ben's job as a hotshot photographer. They're not in the country a day, when they rear-end a raven-haired figure on an old country road. Soon, said figure is haunting their, eh, photographs. But she's not an egotistical media whore; rather someone from the past looking to partake in the usual supernatural malarkey. You know, crouching in corners, doing the whole bug-eyed thing, crawling about the place like they lost a contact lens. It's films like this where I genuinely feel sorry for the actors forced to stand in front of the camera, and give us a face to blame for taking our money. Joshua Jackson was by far the best thing about the 'Creek, spewing the quasi-intellectual dialogue with relative ease, and a successful features career beckoned. Somewhat inexplicably, things stalled; now he's doing one for his agent and headlining a crowd-pulling mess. This is an extremely frustrating production that is merely notable for barely being functional in the rudiments of filmmaking. The director does not muster up one scare for the entire, mercifully short, running time, and there's no hint at the foreboding atmospherics that made the likes of 'The Eye' watchable. If you know that your script is weak, amp up the scary visuals and at least make your cast look purposeful. Although Taylor tries, she'd about as much chance of getting out of this with any credibility as Ochiai does at directing another thriller. Shutter almost rivals One Missed Call as the worst of the recent remake bunch - no mean feat. Avoid like a nit-ridden toddler.

Review by Mike Sheridan