Shutter (2008 film)

Shutter
Shutter08poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Masayuki Ochiai
Produced by Takashige Ichise
Roy Lee
Doug Davison
Written by Luke Dawson
Starring Joshua Jackson
Rachael Taylor
Music by Nathan Barr
Cinematography Katsumi Yanagijima
Editing by Tim Alverson
Michael Knue
Studio Regency Enterprises
New Regency
Vertigo Entertainment
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) March 21, 2008 (USA)
May 15, 2008 (Austral i a)
[1]
Running time Theatrical cut:
85 minutes
Unrated cut:
90 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Japanese
Budget $8 million
[2]
Box office $47,879,410
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shutter is a 2008 American remake of the 2004 Thai horror film of the
same name. The remake was directed by Masayuki Ochiai, and was
released on March 21, 2008.
[3]
Contents
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Release
3.1 Critical reception
3.2 Commercial response
4 Home release
5 Soundtrack
5.1 Track listing
6 References
7 External links
Plot
Ben Shaw (Joshua Jackson) and his new bride, Jane (Rachael Taylor),
leave New York for Tokyo, Japan, where Ben has a job as a
photographer. While traveling, Jane hits a girl wearing a thin dress in
the middle of the wilderness (despite the cold and snow), running over
her with both wheels and running into a ditch. After regaining
consciousness, they find there was no body or even a trace of blood
on either the car or the road, and they decide to leave, thinking the
victim was all right. They later start to find mysterious lights in their
photos, which are later identified as spirit photography by Ben's
assistant, Seiko Nakamura (Maya Hazen). 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
(James Kyson Lee), whose career is to investigate paranormal
activities, and he tells them that the lights are spirits, manifestations of
intense emotions trying to communicate. At a subway station, Jane
spots the ghostly presence of the girl she hit, causing her to believe
that she killed the girl. Ben later also has 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
yrei, 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 (John Hensley) and Bruno (David Denman), 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 Ben and Jane 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 attention. 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, taking off her dress, and throwing it on his face, revealing her inhuman body. She then proceeds 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, 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. Jane screams "He left you because he never loved you" which then
breaks the hold and throws her back on the bed. Megumi stops with a brief sinister laugh, leaving Ben alive.
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 crawling toward a picture of Jane hanging on the wall. Jane
goes into the room behind the picture and finds a camera in a trunk. After uploading the memory card into the laptop
Jane sees more photos taken by Ben, showing Adam and Bruno raping Megumi at her home before her suicide,
while Ben does nothing but watch 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 was about revenge against all three of them. Believing that Megumi was trying to
warn her, and disgusted by Ben's past actions, Jane says that she doesn't want to spend her life with Ben and
leaves. Ben tries to stop her, but Megumi locks the door and doesn't let him.
Driven mad by all the events related to Megumi, Ben begins photographing the apartment with his Polaroid camera,
looking to confront her. 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 weighed Ben, showing a weight of 275 lbs, the
weight of two people, as well as the mysterious shoulder pains, Ben realizes 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, where he is shown sitting slumped over on the
edge of his bed. The last scene is a reflection of the glass from the door, showing Megumi still draped over his back.
Cast
Joshua Jackson as Benjamin "Ben" Shaw
Rachael Taylor as Jane Shaw
Megumi Okina as Megumi Tanaka
John Hensley as Adam
David Denman as Bruno
Maya Hazen as Seiko Nakamura
James Kyson Lee as Ritsuo
Yoshiko Miyazaki as Akiko
Kei Yamamoto as Murase
Daisy Betts as Natasha
Release
Critical reception
The film received generally negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 7% of
critics gave the film positive reviews based on 51 reviews.
[4]
Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 37
out of 100, based on 12 reviews.
Commercial response
The film was released March 21, 2008 in the United States and Canada and grossed $10,447,559 in 2,753 theaters
in its opening weekend, ranking #3 at the box office behind Horton Hears a Who! 's second weekend and Tyler
Perry's Meet the Browns.
[5]
As of June 26, 2008, it has grossed a total of $47,879,410 worldwide $25,928,550 in
Shutter: Original Motion Picture
Soundtrack
Film score by Nathan Barr
Released March 18, 2008
Label Lakeshore Records
the United States and Canada and $21,950,860 in other territories.
[6]
The film's $8 million budget and its almost $48 million worldwide grossing has secured the film as an extremely
lucrative success.
[7]
This was remade in Tamil as Sivi, which was a flop and again in Hindi as CLICK which proved to be a Bollywood
box-office disaster.
Home 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.
Soundtrack
Track listing
1. "Welcome to Tokyo" 1:55
2. "We Hit a Girl!" 2:58
3. "TGK" 1:37
4. "Making Love" 2:40
5. "Alone in Tokyo" 0:59
6. "The Spirit Room" 2:27
7. "The Argument" 3:05
8. "Fly in the Eye" 2:31
9. "Visiting Murase" 2:27
10. "Jane Visits TGK" 4:29
11. "The Truth" 1:54
12. "I Saw Megumi" 1:56
13. "Driving to Megumi's" 3:18
14. "Rest in Peace" 2:35
15. "Flip Book" 3:21
16. "The Whole Truth" 2:39
17. "Psych Ward" 1:02
18. "Good to Me" (performed by Nathan Barr & Lesbeth Scott) 3:23
Commercial songs from film, but not on soundtrack
"Falling" Performed by Krysten Berg
"Just the Tip" Performed by Becca Styles
"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 Akiyuki Nosaka, Osamu Yosioka, and Nonuyoshi Koshibe
"Do Something" Performed by Shane Tsurugi for Rock Life
"Seventy-Seven" Performed by Dino Zisis
"Oh, Joey" Performed by Lucky 13
References
1. ^ Shutter Village Cinemas (http://villagecinemas.com.au/Movies/Shutter.htm)
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2. ^ "Shutter (2008)" (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=shutter.htm). Logline. Retrieved 2009-01-
05.
3. ^ Thai horror remake Shutter gets release date (http://www.filmjunk.com/2007/11/29/thai-horror-remake-shutter-
gets-release-date/), Film Junk; retrieved 2007-12-01
4. ^ "Shutter Movie Reviews, Pictures Rotten Tomatoes" (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009254-shutter/).
Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-06-27.
5. ^ "Shutter (2008) Weekend Box Office Results" (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?
page=weekend&id=shutter.htm). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-05-12.
6. ^ "Shutter (2008)" (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=shutter.htm). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved
2008-05-11.
7. ^ "Shutter (2008)" (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=shutter.htm). Logline. Retrieved 2009-01-
05.
External links
Shutter (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482599/) at the Internet Movie Database
Shutter (http://www.allrovi.com/movies/movie/v397305) at AllRovi
Shutter (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=shutter.htm) at Box Office Mojo
Shutter (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009254-shutter/) at Rotten Tomatoes
Shutter (http://www.metacritic.com/movie/shutter) at Metacritic
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shutter_(2008_film)&oldid=572633879"
Categories: 2008 films 2008 horror films American horror films English-language films Horror film remakes
Films about suicide Films directed by Masayuki Ochiai Films set in Brooklyn Ghost films
American mystery films Supernatural horror films Regency Enterprises films 20th Century Fox films
Rape and revenge films Films set in Tokyo