Following a gruesome car accident, a newlywed couple in Japan believe that the female victim of the accident has returned as a ghost and seeking retribution against him for a previous incident against her and forcing them to find a way to stop the rampage.This wasn't at all that bad if looked at on it's own as it's actually a rather good entry. One of the best features is that there's just a literal ton of encounters with the ghost, and all of them are handled well enough to earn some great moments. From the first dark-room encounter where he finally becomes convinced of the presence of the ghost, the encounter with the ghost in the boardroom which is another stand-out due to the fantastic innovation of the Polaroid camera allowing for some suspense to be had with the waiting for the photo results to come about, and the interaction that happens once the revelation has occurred is really good, and the later attack alone in the apartment with only the flashing camera to provide any light in brief spurts, the sounds of what's going on making it so fun and creepy that works so well due to being quite long and intense, which makes it stand-out a little more than the quick-shot appearances throughout the beginning. Those quick-cut scenes are also are pretty good, with their being a fantastic collection of banging noises off in the distance, ailing cries throughout the house and different pop-ups everywhere, from a great appearance on a train that results in a fun freak-out to a really creepy scene with the ghost appearing in photos all across the apartment, these are all quite fun and really worthwhile. As well, there's an incredibly fun and enjoyable encounter late in the film through an attack at the house, which has a lot of good points about it, from the creepy ghost action to the great setting and what it signifies for what has happened so far, it's a great scene and really makes a great lasting impression. Even the early car accident here with the ghost appearing in the middle of the road and causing a severe accident comes across as really nice here, being a nice shock jump and done early in the film as well. The last plus is the conversation at the magazine, which is quite fun spilling the basis for the film's mystery and getting it all out in the open with the discussion of what's going on, it makes for some really good times and the photographs along the edges aren't that bad at all. These here all work to make this one quite enjoyable. There oddly wasn't a whole lot really wrong with this one. One of the biggest issues is a lame encounter in a friend's apartment late in the film being way too short for what it was intended to do. This here just doesn't really do much, and just really has a feel to it that makes it come off like so many other efforts in the genre. Of course, the camera angles used here are another factor, as they hide everything during the scene and really making it hard to figure out what's happening. Another small problem is the finale in America, which just feels tacked on and unnecessary as the story had ended nicely in Japan and really didn't have to come back to America for the final twist at all. The last flaw is that the revelation comes way too late to really mean what it could've, and since it's based on a mystery that just comes out of nowhere without really being developed well, making that twist highly unorthodox. Overall, though, this wasn't that bad at all.Rated PG-13: Violence, some Language and sounds of Rape.

(13%) A largely subtitle free remake of an Asian horror movie made almost entirely for those too lazy to read. The original was a Thai movie, but for some reason this is set in Japan, but really that's the least of its problems. Storywise this is a decent idea and I'm guessing the original perhaps worked out better, but this is largely overly tame, and for a movie not even 90 mins long it feels very plodding at times, and rather directionless. The two leads are dull characters played by dull performances, and there's a cheap TV movie feel, not to mention some very cheap jump scares and seen it all before "spooky" ghost women. Give this a miss and watch something else.

American photographer and his sweet wife (Joshua Jackson and Rachael Taylor) find a new home in Tokyo thanks to a friend of theirs (David Denman) who sets them up in a building to both live and work, but they encounter a lingering, pestering spirit. This Onryō could very well have a reason for showing up (and ruining) Jackson's photographic sessions with models in/outdoors, as well as, constantly turning up to haunt them. It seems Jackson and Denman (and also their mutual friend, played by John Hensley) eventually recognize exactly who this spirit is and why she is hanging around to remind them of past sins. Formulaic, dull plotting (the sheen had then worn off the allure of American remakes of Asian horror so popular in the late 90s/early 2000s by 2008), and a severe lack of imagination leave this remake dying on the screen without much to grab us. An image of why Jackson feels such a weight on his shoulders seems to be one of the few scenes (I also dug the scene where Taylor visits the magazine popular for showing (and creating, especially) spirit photography, and is shown a room with authentic photographs of specters on film) that leave an impression at all, but even it has been better executed before. You can just revisit (or watch for the first time) the Thai Shutter film and experience better creeps than what are available in this uninspired remake. One of the shining examples of how remaking past films over a period of time can numb the senses of horror fans, eventually draining our desire to even watch their Asian counterparts. The finale, where Jackson goes to great lengths to remove what is haunting him, is the death knell in this rather worthless remake. Taylor tries her best to encourage our sympathies for her difficult situation (not of her making; she's a victim of circumstance, unaware of what her husband done), but her character is basically reactionary, while Jackson bores with a performance and character that aren't able to rise above the material. Encountering a dead body with flies out her mouth may be the lone scary scene in the whole film.

Shutter is a rather different remake than the usual Japanese to American horror, it has a pace which is just cracking, it's speeds along very fast but smoothly, one thing I dislike is when a film takes too long to get going and it lags but this movie doesn't waste any time in telling the story. American remakes of Asian film can either be really good or really bad, this is a good one, in lots of ways, the first being the excellent central performance by Rachael Taylor, Australia's newest up and comer. This film was made a few years and it was before I knew anything about Rachael Taylor but recently I have seen her in quite a bit of stuff and I have to say she has a great screen presence, she is wonderful in Shutter and pretty much everything else she's in.Josh Jackson is pretty standard as the boyfriend with a bit of a secret, I mean his role could have been played by anyone but yeah he's also pretty good. The story is a cool one which made me google spirit photography afterwards, when horror film come out they have to have something different about them, not enough of them do and they suffer because of it. The story unfolds in a mish mash of photos and horror images and the twists that come out towards the end are ones I didn't see coming.All in all I just found this movie to be far superior to so many others, it just has something the others don't, I can't put my finger on it but it just does. Horror fans should enjoy this a lot and I would recommend it to people who like something a bit different, yes it's pretty tame and could be a lot scarier but it doesn't out stay it's welcome at all. Check it out people, and discover the great actress Miss Taylor.