Movie Review

Shutter’ provides some flash and fun

It wasn’t quite a picture-perfect debut for 20th Century Fox’s “Shutter,” as it opened at No. 3 at the box office this weekend. The horror remake about spirit photography flashed around $10.8 million over the last three days. The film is set largely in Tokyo, where star photographer Benjamin Shaw (Joshua Jackson) and his new wife, Jane (Rachel Taylor), have arrived for his latest high-profile shoot. However, their working honeymoon gets off to a bad start when they have a serious car crash. The person who caused the crash is a mysterious woman, who appears on a dark, snowy roadway, and then promptly disappears. Soon enough, the same woman, as an apparition, begins seeking revenge upon Ben and Jane. She shows up in his photographs, repeatedly wreaking havoc with his career. A newcomer to the city, Jane feels very much like a stranger in a strange land as she makes tentative, unsettling forays through the city while Ben is at photo shoots. Things turn for the worse as Ben’s boss Bruno (David Denman), and sleazy model agent Adam (John Hensley) fall victim to mysterious attacks. The increasingly agitated Jane attempts to discover the identity of the malevolent ghost, but she doesn’t like what she ultimately finds. Although this is a remake of a Japanese film, what works for “Shutter” is the unique premise that there is some sort of spirit within the photos that have been taken. The acting is fair, as Jackson is acceptable as Ben and Taylor is absolutely beautiful. You sorta root that nothing bad happens to her. The rest of the cast is rather forgettable, as you tend to get wrapped up with all of the spirits showing up, along with the reasoning as to why this particular spirit is haunting just Ben and not Jane. Plus it doesn’t help that Jackson and Taylor chew up a lot of the scenery anyway. There are going to be people that won’t like “Shutter” and that is understandable. The reason films like this are made is because the public will flock to them in an attempt to get scared. They want to sit in a crowded theatre like I did Saturday night, feel suspenseful, and then jump and scream at every little appropriate thing. The downfall to that is some people took that edgy feeling and simply went overboard with it. Granted there are one or two scenes that’ll take you by surprise and give you the effective jump or spook, but for Pete’s sake, when you get one or two people in the audience who think it’s hilarious to jump every five seconds, it gets rather annoying and takes away from the overall suspense of the film. However, I won’t let the theatre experience taint my scoring for “Shutter,” as it develops nicely towards the end at three out of four stars. “Shutter” is rated PG-13 for terror, disturbing images, sexual content and language. Running time is 1 hour, 25 minutes. Last week’s No. 1, “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who,” remains on top with $25.1 million — its ten-day total reaching $86.5 million. Warner Bros. “10,000 B.C.” remains in the top five after falling from No. 2 with $8.6 million. The pre-historic mammoth movie has earned $76.1 million in three weeks. For more information and show times, contact Regal Cinemas Marketplace 24, 180 Mill Road, Oaks, at 610-666-6697. Posted by Dennis J. Wright