Scan and Pan
Monday, March 24, 2008
Shutter
Photographer Ben (Joshua Jackson) and his new bride Jane (Rachael Taylor) travel to Japan for a honeymoon before he has to begin a new work assignment in Tokyo. While driving to Mount Fuji, Jane accidentally runs over a young woman (Megumi Okina) who suddenly appears in the middle of the road. No body is found, but soon strange flashes of light begin to appear in Ben's photographs and weird things happen to the couple, leading Jane to believe that they're being haunted by the young woman's spirit.
The original Thai film released in 2004 was one of the more terrifying and palpitation-inducing films I've had the pleasure of viewing. This remake is anything but. Despite being an American production, the director is Japan's Masayuki Ochiai (Saimin, Kansen), whose flat direction drains all of the suspense out of the story. I'm not surprised by this result, because I wasn't very impressed by his earlier work on 1999's Saimin, which had the same flaws and was an unscary mess. Instead of using atmosphere and carefully executed camera work to generate scares like the original did, he resorts to cheap jump scenes that we've seen too many times before.
The screenplay by Luke Dawson is generally faithful to the original film's story, but he's managed to take something that was unpredictable and scary and transform it into something that is predictable and boring. It's been dumbed down, over-explained, and generally made as obvious as possible for its intended teenaged American audience.
Jackson is too wooden and Taylor too histrionic as the protagonists. Okina, previously a victim of a ghost in Ju-on: The Grudge, is effective as the ghostly antagonist. The cast also includes David Denman and John Hensley as Ben's friends, Maya Hazen as Ben's assistant Seiko, and James Kyson Lee as Seiko's ex-boyfriend who publishes a magazine dealing with the phenomenon of spirit photography.
Shutter is a dull, unimaginative remake of a really good horror film. It should only prove frightening to someone who has never seen a horror film before, let alone a good one like the one this is based on. Take my usual advice in these matters and just watch the original on DVD.
[1.5 out of 5 stars]
It's getting to the point where I feel like I don't even need to watch an American remake of an Asian horror film. I can just assume it's inferior and be absolutely correct in that assessment. Take this film as further proof of that.
Photographer Ben (Joshua Jackson) and his new bride Jane (Rachael Taylor) travel to Japan for a honeymoon before he has to begin a new work assignment in Tokyo. While driving to Mount Fuji, Jane accidentally runs over a young woman (Megumi Okina) who suddenly appears in the middle of the road. No body is found, but soon strange flashes of light begin to appear in Ben's photographs and weird things happen to the couple, leading Jane to believe that they're being haunted by the young woman's spirit.
The original Thai film released in 2004 was one of the more terrifying and palpitation-inducing films I've had the pleasure of viewing. This remake is anything but. Despite being an American production, the director is Japan's Masayuki Ochiai (Saimin, Kansen), whose flat direction drains all of the suspense out of the story. I'm not surprised by this result, because I wasn't very impressed by his earlier work on 1999's Saimin, which had the same flaws and was an unscary mess. Instead of using atmosphere and carefully executed camera work to generate scares like the original did, he resorts to cheap jump scenes that we've seen too many times before.
The screenplay by Luke Dawson is generally faithful to the original film's story, but he's managed to take something that was unpredictable and scary and transform it into something that is predictable and boring. It's been dumbed down, over-explained, and generally made as obvious as possible for its intended teenaged American audience.
Jackson is too wooden and Taylor too histrionic as the protagonists. Okina, previously a victim of a ghost in Ju-on: The Grudge, is effective as the ghostly antagonist. The cast also includes David Denman and John Hensley as Ben's friends, Maya Hazen as Ben's assistant Seiko, and James Kyson Lee as Seiko's ex-boyfriend who publishes a magazine dealing with the phenomenon of spirit photography.
Shutter is a dull, unimaginative remake of a really good horror film. It should only prove frightening to someone who has never seen a horror film before, let alone a good one like the one this is based on. Take my usual advice in these matters and just watch the original on DVD.
[1.5 out of 5 stars]
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