Shutter: Critic Reviews

Will the next terror-minded remake involve a possessed telegraph machine or a grudge-minded ox and cart? Neither option could be any lamer than the shock-free Shutter.

The director, Masayuki Ochiai, conjures textbook J-horror miasma: clammy clinical interiors; overcast skies; diffuse cityscapes.

If Shutter is any indication, the reputation of professional photographers is still on the wane. Not only are photographs creepy, the film suggests, but so are photographers.

A blandly cast and crafted remake of the same-titled 2004 Thai pic that itself emulated J-horror norms, which seemed a lot fresher back then. Low on real scares, atmosphere and character.

Shutter is seriously short on shudders.

With Shutter, that nerve-tingling soundtrack gets heavy use almost from the beginning of the movie. It becomes tiresome.

The epitome of gutless, derivative hackwork.

Though a presentation of 20th Century Fox, Shutter has the look and feel of a proper J-horror film.

Asian horror remakes are typically not screened for critics, and Shutter is no exception. The studios know what they have: watered-down, lifeless shells of motion pictures devoid of characters, drama, or anything remotely resembling horror.

Strictly perfunctory in its concept and execution, Shutter presents the usual series of spooky images of a deadpan female ghost showing up at odd times and moving in the slow, jerky movements that are de rigueur for the genre.

...an absolutely redundant piece of work...

Out of the list of horrible remakes I've experienced in 2008, "Shutter" really isn't the worst one I've seen yet, but it sure does suck enough to rank up there...

... the film feels like a made-for-TV movie.

Similar to a theme park ride that scares kids, this Asian horror film frightens only newcomers to the genre from which it practically bootlegs.

Shutter the latest photographic enlargement of an Asian horror picture, is clearer and sharper than many of its predecessors, but even the most expert re-touching cannot obscure the fact that we have seen it all before.

Shutter features another pale, scraggly haired young woman a la The Ring haunting our protagonists. Yawn.

paramenei eksisoy, an ohi kai perissotero flyaro ap' tin pigi tis empneysis toy. Apo tin opoia krata episis to megethos ton logikon almaton, oksynontas ta opoy mporei gia na klepsei merikes eykoles fantezi tromares, eno kseperna to prototypo sto epipono t

As pretty and bland as its lead actors.

Yeah, this movie is a must avoid.

Workmanlike at best; derivative, predictable and slightly dull at worst.

Workmanlike at best; derivative, predictable and slightly dull at worst.

It's an effective scary story that depicts women with spirit - on both sides of the divide.

It's all rather predictable, and often irritatingly derivative

SHUTTER should have been the scariest horror film since THE RING, but instead it was infuriatingly bad. This joins ONE MISSED CALL in the ranks of worst horror remakes of all-time and I highly recommend skipping this one for the original...

The latest in the downward spiral of remakes