Shutter (2004)

Film Review

I love Asian cinema. This is the original version from Thailand and I must confess I've not seen the US remake but I will. There's something about films from this part of the world that I find are just a bit more authentically scary.

This film begins with a group of young university friends at a drinking party. Shortly afterwards our two main characters, Tun and Jane, are driving home which immediately makes me uneasy. They are travelling along a dark road when a girl appears in front of them and Jane runs her down. She stops the car and attempts to get out and help but Tun doesn't let her and makes her drive on leaving the girl for dead. This moment has more significance than it first seems.

A common theme in Asian cinema is ghostly faces that appear in developed photographs. It's a great vehicle as it makes you want to look over your shoulder, or wish you had done when the photo was being taken! Tun is a photographer and a few nights later he is haunted by nightmares of a girl with long dark hair coming after him in his dark room. Nice and creepy imagery that never gets old. He later takes a look at his newly developed pictures and finds a white face in the background. You wouldn't get this with digital. Just saying.

Moments we don't really notice or see the significance of at first make this film absolutely amazing, like Tun's sore neck and shoulders, why the nurse looks confused when she weighs him at the hospital. We soon realise that Tun is trying to run from more than the dead girl in the road, he's running from his sordid past, and we see the awful, awful truth in the final photograph he takes.

This film is beautifully constructed. The reveal makes you go "Oh, it all makes sense!" and ear achingly frightened all at once. It's a scene that haunted me for days afterwards and will not be forgotten in a hurry.

Say cheese!