Shutter (2004)

Tun is a young photographer who along with his pretty girlfriend Jane go to a gathering one night with his friends. On the way home with Jane driving and whilst she’s distracted talking to Tun, she manages to hit a young woman full on before crashing into a barrier. Looking into her rearview mirror, the girl is prone in the middle of the road. Jane wants to go out and check the girl but Tun tells her to drive away and so she does. Days later whilst Tun is looking at photographs he recently took, mysterious lights and shadows start to appear in them and Jane is having trouble sleeping at night. Though his camera checks out OK and trying to find a rational explanation for the odd phenomenom, it soon becomes clear to Tun that he’s being haunted. A check in the local papers find nothing to suggest that a fatal hit and run accident took place the night they hit that girl. Perhaps she was OK after all? Soon Tun and Jane start to experience strange things happening to them. It gets much worse when several of Tun’s friends commit suicide. It’s all connected to Tun’s past which he tried to hide and it becomes apparent that this restless spirit has him on her death list next. Will he manage to escape her vengeance?

Well what an incredible scary and creepy movie this was and it really made me jump out of my seat several times. The atmosphere and tension is cranked up from the moment they hit the young girl on the road and never lets up for the rest of the movie. It will leave you on the edge of your seat. A great storyline. In a tired market which has churned out these type of movies just to join on the bandwagon over the years I’m glad to say Shutter manages to stay fresh and imaginative. It doesn’t manage however to completely escape from trying to copy stuff from other movies. I just wish that they’d think of another type of vengeful spirit, it gets that bit boring seeing a long haired woman all the time. Can’t they at least try and get away from the image of Sadako from Ringu. Just use some imagination and think of something different – in order for the people watching to say “well we haven’t seen anything like that before”. A nice fresh approach to the Asian ghost movies genre. The script and pace is just right. It’s got some nice twists and turns. Any movie that can make me scared deserves to be praised.

Sadako’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5