dholliday Once you've seen a few Asian horror films you begin to notice patterns emerging, most galling is that often the main horror element is a placid-looking girl in a white dress with long straight black hair, who lost her life in some unjust way but has come back to haunt either randoms or somehow-related peoples.The Ring, The Grudge, Tale of Two Sisters, a few more I've now forgotten about, and add Shutter to this list too.I was still happy to go with it if the pic was well-made, with some good scares and uneasy moments, but to be honest the scares are very standard predictable jump fare: increase in tense music -> protagonist looking uneasy -> loud bang accompanying a brief flash of zombiefied Asian girl (in a white dress).The narrative jumps about quite randomly in ways that only make sense at the end of the film, and it's the end which saves this from being a poor experience. It's not quite on the high-end dread level as the climax of an otherwise quite dull Ringu (6/10) but it's spooky enough to be satisfying. On the other hand the ending reveal also made me chuckle a little, so not exactly scary.The two main female actors are also very average, with the male character being an utterly pathetic figure: it's not quite clear how he was written, but I just wanted to punch him in the face.Generally there's nothing memorable on offer here, tho' there could've been: the idea of polaroids showing us apparitions is a potentially fantastic concept, covered effectively by the Fatal Frame (Project Zero) series of games on the Playstation 2 console, which was very likely the source of inspiration for Shutter (tho' the game I believe used Camera Obscura). Speaking of Fatal Frame, a film was made last year, but seems very obscure: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3684484/ Back to Shutter: to be fair there is one nice scene which stands out: the photo-flip series showing the apparition moving towards something. Again it could've been so much more: if you've seen Paranormal Activity 4 and always thought they didn't maximise the potential of those X-Box Kinect lighting scenes, then you'll be thinking similar here.Regarding the language: as ever, you should watch a film with its original audio as long as subs are available. The beginning is almost impossible to keep up with the quick-fire banter, but shortly afterwards it's fine. Thai sometimes has Korean-ish inflections, but mostly reminds you (if you, like me, have never heard Thai before) of Vietnamese.Worth a watch if you're addicted to typical Asian horror and are interested in how Thailand does it.Not worth your time if you're a horror fan looking for unique scares or original story.

dsrsen I have been watching horror movies for about 20+ years and I have seen all the blood and guts stuff from Hostel to Irreversible all the August Underground films, Martyrs, Inside, Scrapbook, just about all the extreme torture horror stuff and any and everything this genre has to offer believe me that isn't what true horror is about, but this is.When it comes to horror I believe a film should instil fear and dread and actually try to frighten the viewer, and this my friends does just that.Along with it's counterparts Ringu, Ju on, Kairo, The Eye, and so on this is in my opinion the best of that sub genre and one of the most outright frightening films in existence.Overall I won't give anything away just to say get in a dark room late at night put the DVD in on a big screen with the sound up and watch it by yourself.You be the judge.

brigada109 i have been watching horror movies for quite some time now and i m not easily impressed and i have to admit i was not impressed by this one. it reminded me of a character like Sadako in love and the fact that she was so present in the film made it not scary at all. Sure there was a plot twist...only one though! and if you were sane enough to watch this film carefully (even though it may be a mind-numbing experience) you would guess the story of the ghost...To be honest the lead actor is too preppy to play in a horror film. Unfortunately thats the way it goes for actors who have played in series like Dawson's Creek...nonetheless thumbs up for originality - it was the first bitch fight i have ever seen between a girl and a ghost! I would only recommend this film if you are too bored and just want to fall asleep...

bassplace88 Being an avid horror fan I thought I'd seen it all, until "Shutter". This movie has a scare formula that works effectively throughout the entire movie. The music and editing create the atmosphere that the set design did not, while the sound aided repeatedly for the many great startling scares. Combine this with a thrilling mystery, unnatural visual imagery and make up, and you get one of the creepiest ghost stories ever told. The pace was wonderful as the biggest scares came every 15 minutes throughout this fright fest, with some thrown at you machine gun style. Watch this in the dark, with the sound cranked up, and if you dare...alone. It made my hair stand up at least 4 times and my goosebumps had goosebumps. Enjoy this tasty morsel of horror!