Newlyweds Benjamin (Joshua Jackson) and Jane (Rachael Taylor) Shaw move to Japan so the former can start an important photography job with a prestigious international advertising conglomerate. Before anyone can say, “Cheese,” the couple begins to be plagued by mysterious ghost-like apparitions quickly making their lives a fearful living Hell.

CRITIQUE

Based on a 2000 Thai thriller, as I mentioned in my original theatrical review of the picture, Shutter doesn’t exactly offer up anything fresh or new. By and large, this is the same old strum and drag trotted out one more time as if it were the most original set of frights and scares ever to hit the movie theater.

The thing is, where all of this felt a bit tired and humdrum on celluloid at home it actually works fairly decently. Sure it isn’t going to change your life or give the viewer a week of sleepless nights, but as a sitting on your couch taco-muncher the flick ain’t half bad, and considering just how much out there right now stinks to high heaven a person could easily do one heck of a lot worse.

Don’t get me wrong, everything here from the mysterious feminine poltergeist, to the shocking images flashing in a speeding subway train’s windows, to the supposedly jaw-droppingly twisted climax is something we have seen so many times before it stopped being scary ages ago. Luke Dawson’s screenplay isn’t exactly bad so much as it’s just pointlessly derivative, the majority of the scares telegraphed from so far away a person could be forgiven for yawning.

Still, I’m being completely truthful when I say I enjoyed this feature far more at home than I did in the theater. It never bored me and, even for already having seen it one time already, I never felt the need to go and do anything else while it was on. Best of all, the beautiful Taylor actually makes up for a fairly strong leading lady, and while I couldn’t have cared about Jackson one way or the other where it came to her my emotions were exactly opposite.

A side note, as far as all the “unrated” footage is concerned, the movie still runs just shy of 90 minutes so whatever was added couldn’t have added up to very much material. While I didn’t take the time to examine the two cuts side by side, the fact is I’m hard-pressed to think I’d have noticed what was different from one version to the other, anyhow.

THE VIDEO

Shutter is presented in 1080p 1.85:1 Widescreen. It is a solid transfer, nothing more.

THE AUDIO

Available audio tracks include English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio Lossless as well as English, French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround with optional English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin and Korean subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

There are far more extras here than I would normally have expected for a film that performed quite this meekly during its original theatrical run. These include:

Commentary by Production Executive Alex Sundell, Screenwriter Luke Dawson and Actress Rachael Taylor (pretty good, but I did wish both Sundell and Dawson would have shut up a bit more and let Taylor get a few more words in edgewise)

A Ghost in the Lens featurette (fairly standard, not remotely amazing)

A Cultural Divide: Shooting in Japan Featurette (ditto)

The Director: Masayuki Ochiai featurette (not bad)

A Conversation with Luke Dawson featurette (waste of time)

A History of Spirit Photography featurette (very interesting – and actually kind of creepy)

Create your own Phantom photo (very dorky)

The Hunt for the Haunt: Tools and Tips for Ghost Hunting featurette (don’t bother)

Fox Movie Channel presents In Character With Joshua Jackson (really don’t bother)

Japanese Spirit photography videos (passable, but also kind of a regurgitation of some of the other material already covered)

Alternate and deleted scenes, including alternate ending (skip the deleted scenes, but the alternate ending isn’t half bad)

Overall I was kind of surprised by the amount of material included on this disc. Definitely a bit of a shock.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Shutter is pretty average overall, not really all that bad and certainly not all that good, but as a rental it passes the time and doesn’t insult a person’s intelligence to the point they hate themselves for watching it. Taylor is quite good, the premise is suitably spooky and there is even a scare or two that work far better at home for some reason then they ever did inside a theater. Other than that, I can’t think of a darn more else to say about it.