Shutter Review

In my early days of 'studying' film I was told a story of African tribesmen being shown Gone With the Wind as a social experiment. The natives were sat down and shown the film in its entirity. They talked amongst themselves, occasionally jumped at the sight of fire, all the while transfixed by these moving images. Once the movie finished the translater asked the chief what their analysis was and he replied simply, "What happened to the chicken?". The conclusion that was made; we learn to read film from an early age and all the tribesmen saw was image after image, the most notable for them was the sight of food. Yet even these tribesmen could tell you how Shutter was going to end after only 10 minutes.

A newlywed photographer and his wife move to Japan for the husbands career. On the way they pull a Halle Berry and run over a girl. When the police arrive the girl has up and vanished like a fart in the wind. Spooky hey? Then the girl starts appearing in photos. Wow its getting spookier! Its hard to write sarcastically but that was it by the way. Ten minutes in some of hubbies odious friends turn up and talk about his past being a bit risque. Oooooooh I wonder if the ghost is out for revenge or if she's just dropping in for a cup of tea and a scone. That sarcasm wasn't hidden as well was it?

Joshua 'At least he's not Dawson' Jackson is the photographer whose past is creeping up on him while Rachel 'useless in Transformers even more useless in this' Taylor is the put upon wife. Neither of them are particularly terrible which is disappointing but they are both as bland as a Chinese Take Away's English dish section which is reason enough to throw things at the screen. Although please don't because I'd have to get a ladder out and clean it off.

There are some half decent shocks but they soon become tiresome when they arrive like clockwork to make up for the weak story. There's only so many times someone can be in a room alone when they hear a noise, turn round, see that it isn't the big bad ghostie and exclaim with gusto, "Oh its you! You scared the hell out of me". I don't see this kind of filler trickery vanishing from our screens anytime soon but to do it 48 times in one film is a bit sodding much. If they do ever show this to a tribe of African folk it might fool them the first time but by the end they'd be yawning and moaning along with the rest of us.