HALLOWEN HANGOVER: SHUTTER (2008) ** ½

With original horror films being all the rage nowadays, it’s fun to look back at a time (not so long ago) when remakes ruled the scene.  Specifically, remakes of Asian horror flicks.  In 2008, no less than three Asian horror remakes flooded theaters:  The Eye, One Missed Call, and Shutter.  Even though I have more or less a distain for the subgenre, I probably liked all of them a little more than the general consensus.  (I certainly liked them more than the originals.)

Like many remakes of Asian horror films, Shutter is a rather watered-down PG-13 deal.  (Oddly enough, the original Shutter was a Thai film, but this American remake is set in Japan, I guess to ride the coattails of The Ring, The Grudge, and the like.)  Most of the scares come from blurry pictures, CGI-enhanced snippets of body horror, and split-second jump scares.  As far as these things go, it falls well short of being “effective”, but it is definitely more watchable than the rest of its ilk.  

Joshua Jackson stars as a photographer who just got married to the lovely Rachael Taylor.  His job moves him to Japan, and while driving, Taylor hits (or thinks she hits) a woman on the road.  Once they get settled into their new digs, the couple’s bliss doesn’t last for very long.  It seems every time either of them takes a picture, the specter of the woman appears.  Is she seeking revenge on Taylor?  Or does she have other plans?

Well, let’s just say I figured out the twist about five minutes into the flick.  Despite that, the performances by Jackson and (especially) Taylor keep you invested, even when the plot is spinning its wheels.  While most of the horror is your generic, run-of-the-mill PG-13 stuff, there is at least one solid sequence where the ghost tries to make Sexy Fun Time with Jackson.  One can only imagine how far this could’ve gone with an R rating, but this scene is memorable enough to give Shutter an edge over most Asian horror remakes of the ‘00s.