Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Shutter Blu-ray Movie Review

Do you dare even picture this disc in your collection?

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 14, 2008

This is what I get for marrying a photographer.

Shutter is a fairly miserable movie, which is par for the course in the context of 21st century horror. Thankfully, it's nowhere near as bad as some of the drivel we've seen come out in the previous months, like One Missed Call (the standard-bearer of all that is wrong with mass-market horror these days). Shutter, like a number of recent insufferable horror films, is a remake of a more respected Asian-made horror film, and it must have been in and out of theaters so fast that there wasn't even enough time to snap a picture of the film's title out on the marquee. I don't recall it showing around my neck of the woods at all. That's not surprising, because this is a completely forgettable movie that is saved from the absolutely lowest depths of terrible movie purgatory thanks to decent direction by Masayuki Ochiai and a few quasi-interesting ideas, sequences, and revelations throughout the film's final thirty minutes. Shutter is another movie that is relying on the now tried-and-true "unrated" marketing scheme to sell itself on home video, but seeing as the original theatrical release received a PG-13 rating, and this Blu-ray edition boasts no nudity, very little blood, and only a few vulgarities, I'd be hard-pressed to point out anything that would have to be cut from this edition of the film to earn it a PG-13, and I have no doubt this cut would too have received a PG-13 (although an arguably "hard" PG-13) rating as-is.

Hi, I'm Joshua Jackson. I'd really appreciate it if you would see my newest movie, 'Shutter,' on Blu-ray.

Benjamin and Jane Shaw (Joshua Jackson, Urban Legend, and Rachel Taylor, Transformers, respectively) are newlyweds headed to Japan for both their honeymoon and a photography job Ben's been hired for. Things immediately take a turn for the worse when Jane hits a woman standing in the middle of the street on a dark, snowy, country road, although a body is never found. As both begin to take pictures around Japan -- Ben taking his intricately planned glamour shots, and Jane her point-and-shoot tourist shots -- they begin to notice odd, out-of-place streaks of light and other random anomalies in the pictures. Eventually, they are led to believe that these are "spirit pictures," photographs depicting ghosts, aberrations, and other unusual images of troubled souls still roaming the Earth. When the images become a decidedly and disturbingly real and dangerous phenomenon, threatening the lives of Ben, Jane, and those around them, they must race to discover just who this individual is that is not only haunting their photographs, but every moment of their lives.

The primary problem with Shutter is that the film is so clearly divided into its three stages -- exposition, scares, and revelations -- that they never really form a cohesive whole, each segment a separate entity that fits into the story but fails to flow one to the other, so that the movie takes forever and a day to go anywhere. There is the very long exposition to let us know what is going on and get into the spirit of the picture, and the payoff is a repeated assault of random images of the film's antagonist haunting the protagonists. There is a stretch in the movie where one of the two protagonists sees this antagonist, becomes frightened, and finds it all to be either a dream, a hallucination, or a real-life occurrence. The scene ends, and the film repeats the same premise with slightly different resolutions each time. Literally, the same basic scene comes at you over and over again, the only difference being some grotesque deformity on one of the characters, or some cheap thrill to get audience members to jump out of their seats.

I will give credit where it is due, and Shutter does get a few things right that makes it slightly better than expected. The film features a decent stylization from director Masayuki Ochiai. There isn't much of a story to work with here, and the acting is fairly atrocious from just about everyone but the film's antagonist (who doesn't even have any lines), but Masayuki Ochiai's direction is definitely the bright spot in this film and perhaps the only reason to give it a watch. Although Shutter revels in more of the same horror clichés so prevalent in the genre today (namely throwing scary images on screen for only a split second, and accompanying them with loud, powerful musical cues), one scene in particular -- found in chapter thirteen on this disc -- proved effective and genuinely scary. The scene, completely dark and lit only by random flashes from a flash bulb, is intense and well-constructed, a credit to Ochiai's eye for fine direction.

Shutter Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shutter develops on Blu-ray in typical-of-Fox high quality 1080p, 1.85:1 framed high definition transfer. Other than flesh tones that sometimes appear too orange (but generally remain a true-to-life, natural shade) and a bit of crushing in the deep blacks seen in the movie, Shutter boasts a fine transfer. Natural film grain is present and accounted for over the entirety of the image, but it never becomes so thick as to distract from the image, only adding a theatrical quality to the movie that makes looking at it a pleasure. Colors are natural and precise, and none are overblown. At the 17:25 mark on the counter, we see but on example of the extraordinary detail in some of the medium-wide street-level shots of the city. We can make out every detail on signs, which, with strong colors, allows this multifaceted shot to epitomize the fine quality of the transfer. Even the more minute details seen in the film, like scuff marks on a tile floor, are rendered on this 1080p image with amazing clarity. Facial detail, too, is displayed with lifelike accuracy. Several close-ups of the actors revealed every pore and blemish, and even the layers of makeup on the faces with precision. The print is in meticulous condition, save for only one or two random black speckles that appeared. Contrast is excellent, and there is no shimmering, macroblocking, banding, or compression issues in the picture. Fox has once again proven their worth as a leading provider in high-quality Blu-ray content, no matter how good or bad the story may be.

Shutter Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shutter snaps onto Blu-ray with Fox's usual high definition lossless audio codec of choice, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack. A loud soundtrack, it features very deep lows, highs that are occasionally muffled but generally crystal-clear, and a solid midrange. There are some nice, creepy, but generic-at-day's-end atmospherics in the movie, perhaps best exemplified by the sounds of what seem to the the creaking and settling of the old building where Ben and Jane are living, as heard in chapter five. Surround presence is exceptional, with the oft-duplicated and certainly tired and trite ghastly howls, screeches, and other unoriginal "spooky" noises circling the listening area. The effect is good, and the soundtrack does a fantastic job of replicating them perfectly, but ultimately, the effect just isn't scary (which is no fault of the soundtrack itself). Sound is well-placed throughout the entirety of the soundstage. Even the sound of an elevator door opening off to the side is precisely placed for the perfect effect. Imaging and fidelity are fantastic throughout, and, thanks to the sound quality, you feel yourself an observer inside the movie. The subwoofer not only pounds, but it pulsates to excellent effect. Dialogue reproduction offered no audible shortcomings. Shutter makes for a fine listen, and helps keep the viewer engaged in a film that offers little substance.

Shutter Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Shutter provides viewers with more than a mere snapshot of extra footage; this package is more akin to an entire memory stick worth of supplements, highlighted by a feature-length commentary track with production executive Alex Sundell, screenwriter Luke Dawson, and actress Rachel Taylor. This trio provides an engaging listen as they go into detail about the history of the production, the value of test screenings, scenes that worked well in the original and were brought over to this version, and other various tidbits that prove more fascinating than the movie itself. This group does a fantastic job of selling listeners on the movie, and while I don't think the movie is as good as they make it out to be, I may re-watch it one day with their thoughts in mind and try to see it from a different perspective.

A Ghost in the Lens (480p, 8:09) is an examination of the Japanese perception of ghosts, notably, the "Yurei," a spirit whose life was ended by violent means and remains in this world to haunt its killers. The feature also looks at the difference in the culture of ghosts and spirits between East and West. A Cultural Divide: Shooting in Japan (480p, 9:21) looks at why filming in Japan works for the movie, and the way the characters are shaped by their surroundings. The Director: Masayuki Ochiai (480p, 9:31) features the director discussing the film in his own words, in Japanese with English subtitles. A Conversation With Luke Dawson (480p, 5:33) features the film's screenwriter discussing the advantages of setting the film in Japan, the positives brought to the project by hiring a Japanese director, the "fish out of water" perspective of the film's heroine, and more. Fox Movie Channel Presents In Character With Joshua Jackson (480p, 2:06) is a fluff interview with the film's star. Fifteen alternate and deleted scenes (480p, 27:18) concludes the supplements that directly relate to the movie itself.

Moving along to the extras that don't really pertain to the movie per se, we begin with A History of Spirit Photography (480p, 4:50), an interesting yet ultimately corny piece that focuses on the first man to capture the spirit world on camera and the various spiritualist movements and scams that followed. Create Your Own Phantom Photo (480p, 4:00) show viewers how to make their very own spirit photos in Photoshop. The Hunt For the Haunt: Tools and Tips For Ghost Hunting (480p, 2:29) is a text-based beginners guide on how to find haunted locations and then capture spirits on film. Japanese Spirit Photography Videos (480p, 17:16) is divided into three parts, and we are warned that "the images that follow have reportedly driven many viewers to insanity or suicide," so if in the coming days you don't see my next scheduled review, College Road Trip, that I am sure everyone is waiting for with baited breath, you'll know why. This final supplemental entry on the state of spirit photography in Japan is from Japanese television and is nothing more than sensationalist junk about the spirit world (and I thought American television was bad).

Shutter Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Given the amateurish script, the abysmal acting, and all the expected horror clichés that prove to be the bane of director Masayuki Ochiai's Shutter, his talent as a filmmaker elevates the material just enough to place it in the realm of "watchable." Although the movie never really manages to scare, gross out, or otherwise display any kind of genuine horror, Shutter is more valiant in its efforts to actually make something out of nothing than the vast majority of the string of atrociously bad horror movies to come out over the past decade. 20th Century Fox's presentation of Shutter on Blu-ray is an excellent one. Wowing viewers with first-rate picture and sound, and offering those who care a better-than-expected supplemental package, fans of this film will be more than pleased with the Blu-ray presentation. If you are going to buy one bad horror movie this year, it may as well be Shutter.