Shutter is a 2008 remake of the 2004 Thai film of the same name. The remake was directed by Masayuki Ochiai, and was released on March 21, 2008.[3].
Plot
Ben and his new bride Jane leave New York for Tokyo, Japan, where Ben has a job as a photographer. While traveling, Jane hits a girl in the middle of the wilderness, wearing a thin dress, despite the cold and snow, running over her with both wheels into a ditch. After regaining consciousness, they find there was no body or even a trace of blood on both the car and road, and decide to leave, thinking the victim was alright. They later start to find mysterious lights in their photos, which was later identified as spirit photography by Ben's assistant Seiko Nakamura. Jane begins to have eerie dreams and visions as if they are trying to tell her something, and senses a mysterious haunting presence stalking them. Ben begins to complain of severe shoulder pain, and his friends begin to comment he's looking bent and hunched over, though the doctor he goes to see can find no cause. Seiko takes Jane to her ex-boyfriend, Ritsuo, whose career is to investigate paranormal, says that the lights are spirits, manifestations of intense emotions trying to communicate. At a subway station, Jane spots the ghostly presence was the girl she hit, causing her to believe that she killed someone. Ben's later also have a similar terrifying encounter in his dark room. They then go to a medium, Murase; however, Ben refuses to translate what Murase says, claiming he is a fraud.
Later on Jane decides to visit the office building in one of the photos. When she gets there, she goes to the floor where the light has gathered, and takes pictures in the empty office. She encounters the yūrei, and learns that the girl's name was Megumi Tanaka and that Ben knew her. When she confronts Ben about it, he admits that he and Megumi were once involved in a relationship, but that after the death of her father, she became very obsessive and clingy, and eventually he dumped her, with help from his two friends.
Ben's friends, Adam and Bruno, are killed by Megumi. Adam's eye is torn out while shooting pictures and he dies from shock; Bruno commits suicide by jumping from his apartment in a state of shock and undress, suggesting that he has been sexually violated. After watching Bruno jump from the building they go back to their apartment. Ben wants to leave but Jane says "We're not going anywhere" and hands Ben their wedding photo in which the right hand side shows a distorted picture of Megumi. They realize she's been with them the entire time and what happened on the road was meant for their attentions. They go to Megumi's home, only to find her decayed body; she had committed suicide with potassium cyanide long before the car impact.
That night Ben is tortured by Megumi. She appears in different places around the room and climbs onto the bed, straddling Ben and takes off her dress, throwing it on his face. She then precedes to follow him around the room where she lets her tongue out (which is much longer than a normal human tongue) and forces it into Ben's mouth and kissing him, releasing a swarm of flies that almost choke him. Jane wakes up and screams at Megumi to leave Ben and her alone after watching flies come out of his mouth. Megumi's shadow appears behind her against the fluttering window curtains and she is wrapped up in the curtains and pushed against the window where her head cracks the glass, and screams "He left you because he never loved you" which then breaks it and throws her back on the bed. Megumi stops, leaving Ben alive and a brief sinister laughter.
After Megumi's funeral, Ben and Jane return to New York, thinking it's all over. However, Jane finds some recent photos in an envelope which still show Megumi, who is shown crawling toward a picture of Jane hanging on the wall. She goes into the room behind the picture and finds a camera in a trunk and after uploading the memory card into the laptop sees more photos, taken by Ben, showing Adam and Bruno raping Megumi at her home before her suicide, while Ben did nothing but watched them doing the deed. After this discovery, Ben returns home, where he tries to explain he felt it was the only way to drive Megumi away, as nothing else was working. They'd used some pills and had planned on using the pictures as blackmail against Megumi if she didn't leave him alone but it turned into rape. This explains why Ben didn't want to translate what the medium said earlier in the film and why Megumi murdered Adam and Bruno, as Ben knew this is about revenge against all three of them. Believing that Megumi was trying to warn her and disgusted by Ben's past actions, Jane leaves.
Angered and apparently driven mad by Jane's departure, Ben begins photographing the apartment with his Polaroid camera looking for Megumi for confrontation. After throwing the camera across the room, it takes a picture of him, showing Megumi sitting astride his shoulders. Remembering in the hospital where a nurse is weighing Ben, showing a weight of 275 lbs, the weight of two people, as well as the mysterious shoulder pains, made him realize that Megumi has been with him all along since her suicide without his knowledge. Horrified, and in an effort to rid himself of her, he electrocutes himself. He is rendered completely catatonic and sent to a mental institution. The last scene is a reflection of the glass from the door, showing Megumi still draped across him.
Cast
Release
Reception
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 7% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 51 reviews, and Top Critics has a 10% rating based on 10 reviews.[4] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 37 out of 100, based on 12 reviews.
Box office performance
The film was released March 21, 2008 in the United States and Canada and grossed $10.4 million in 2,753 theaters its opening weekend, ranking #3 at the box office.[5] As of June 19, 2008, it has grossed a total of $43.7 million worldwide — $25.9 million in the United States and Canada and $17.8 million in other territories.[6] The film's $8 million budget and its almost $44 million worldwide grossing has secured the film as an extremely lucrative success.[7]
DVD release
Shutter was released on DVD on July 15, 2008 and the Unrated Edition included commentary, featurettes, deleted scenes and an alternate ending. The theatrical version was made available for sale as well.
Songs featured in the motion picture
- Falling - Performed by Krysten Berg
- Just The Tip - Performed by Becca Styles
- Good To Me - Performed by Nathan Barr & Lesbeth Scott (Also featured in the motion picture soundtrack)
- Come On Shake - Performed by Shake
- That Kinda Booty - Performed by Dem Naughty Boyz
- Sky Business - Performed by Matt Pelling & Paul Williard
- Nasty Funky Crazy - Performed by Becca Styles
- Fallout - Performed by Brydon Stace
- In A War- Performed by Michael Popieluch
- Underwater - Performed by A.M. Pacific
- Omo Cha No Cha Cha Cha - Performed by Akiyuk Nosaka, Osamu Yosioka,& Nonuyoshi Koshibe
- Do Something - Performed by Shane Tsurugi for Rock Life
- Seventy-Seven - Performed by Dino Zisis
- Oh, Joey - Performed by Lucky 13
References
External links
