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    Shutter

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

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    "Shutter" is a ghost story with no scares and a tired plot. If you have seen any Japanese ghost film you have seen this movie and seen it better. Jane (Rachael Taylor) and Ben (Joshua Jackson) are newlyweds who begins spotting some spooky images in the pictures they are taking. It soon becomes obvious that there is some kind of ghost, haunting them, but what does it want? Why is it haunting them? What can Jane do to make it go away?

    Like all of the films in this genre, the characters (which in the American remakes are usually Americans travelling to Japan or another foreign country) happen upon a weird accident, death or artifact and soon start seeing spooky ghosts. After a few bodies pile up, it becomes apparent that the ghost wants something or is trying to help them solve a mystery. Once solved, there's some king of terrifying revelation, someone bad gets their comeuppance, and the ghost leaves the remaining main characters alone (or do they? ) This film does not deviate from this plot at all, but that's the least of this film's problems.

    So to start off, the ghost in this film seldom appears and isn't frightening. I have to give some credit here because even though ghost lady here isn't nearly frightening as the idea of getting your picture taken and posted on the web o your worst hair day, the actors perform as if it was. Joshua Jackson and Rachael Taylor prove that they have some acting talent, hurray! The creepy deaths are very few and far between and aren't disturbing (one is laughable, it's so ludicrous) so those don't add any tension and any scenes where there could be some genuine frights generated are poorly edited and shot. One particular scene, where the whole room is blacked out and only periodically illuminated by camera flashes (which allow us to see the ghost for brief moments) is really poorly executed because the camera keeps switching angles and makes it difficult to see what is going on. The mystery at the end feels like a tamed version of something that could be (and probably was in the original) genuinely disturbing but ends up being vague and almost insultingly bad. When you hear the words "bad remake", you think of everything that this movie is: not frightening, watered down, contrived (in this case because the American characters really have no reason to be moving to Tokyo after you find out what the big revelation is), unnecessary and unoriginal.

    The final ending makes little sense and ultimately you feel like you wasted your time. I wondered to myself why this movie was even made. There's nothing to this picture at all and I could have spent my time watching, or re-watching a good version of this formula or even a really bad one that you could at least make fun of. Ultimately, nothing really works with "Shutter" and it's a very poor excuse for a ghost story. (On DVD, January 18, 2013)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  18.7.2015 age: 26-35 2,866 reviews

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