Shutter Blu-ray delivers stunning video and audio in this fan-pleasing Blu-ray release
For photographer Ben (Joshua Jackson) and his new wife Jane (Rachael Taylor), his new assignment — a lucrative fashion shoot in Tokyo — was supposed to be a kind of working honeymoon. With this exotic professional opportunity and the limitless possibilities of a new marriage, Ben and Jane arrive in Japan. But as they make their way on a mountain road leading to Mt. Fuji, their new life together comes to, literally, a crashing halt. Their car smashes into a woman standing in the middle of the road, who has materialized out of nowhere. Upon regaining consciousness after the accident, Ben and Jane cannot find any trace of the girl Jane believes she hit with the car.
Shutter is a fairly miserable movie, which is par for the course in the context of 21st
century
horror. Thankfully, it's nowhere near as bad as some of the drivel we've seen come
out in the previous months, like One Missed Call (the
standard-bearer of all that is wrong with mass-market horror these days).
Shutter, like a number of recent insufferable horror films, is a remake of a more
respected Asian-made horror film, and it must have been in and out of theaters so
fast that there wasn't
even enough time to snap a picture of the film's title out on the marquee. I don't recall it
showing around my neck of the woods at all. That's not surprising, because this is a completely
forgettable movie that is saved from the absolutely lowest depths of terrible movie purgatory
thanks to decent direction by Masayuki Ochiai and a few quasi-interesting ideas, sequences, and
revelations throughout the film's final thirty minutes. Shutter is another movie that is
relying on the now tried-and-true "unrated" marketing scheme to sell itself on home video, but
seeing as the original theatrical release received a PG-13 rating, and this Blu-ray edition boasts no
nudity, very little blood, and only a few vulgarities, I'd be hard-pressed to point out anything that
would have to be cut from this edition of the film to earn it a PG-13, and I have no doubt this cut
would too have received a PG-13 (although an arguably "hard" PG-13) rating as-is.
Hi, I'm Joshua Jackson. I'd really appreciate it if you would see my newest movie, 'Shutter,' on
Blu-ray.
Benjamin and Jane Shaw (Joshua Jackson, Urban Legend, and
Rachel Taylor, Transformers,
respectively)
are
newlyweds headed to Japan for both their honeymoon and a photography job Ben's been hired
for.
Things immediately take a turn for the worse when Jane hits a woman standing in the middle of
the
street on a dark, snowy, country road, although a body is never found. As both begin to take
pictures around Japan -- Ben taking his intricately planned glamour shots, and Jane her
point-and-shoot tourist shots -- they begin to notice odd, out-of-place streaks of light and other
random anomalies in the pictures. Eventually, they are led to believe that these are "spirit
pictures," photographs depicting ghosts, aberrations, and other unusual images of troubled souls
still
roaming the Earth. When the images become a decidedly and disturbingly real and dangerous
phenomenon, threatening the lives of Ben, Jane, and those around them, they must race to
discover just who this individual is that is not only haunting their photographs, but every
moment of their lives.
The primary problem with Shutter is that the film is so clearly divided into its three
stages -- exposition, scares, and revelations -- that they never really form a cohesive whole,
each
segment a separate entity that fits into the story but fails to flow one to the other, so that the
movie takes forever and a day to go anywhere. There is the very long
exposition to let us know what is going on and get into the spirit of the picture, and the payoff is
a repeated assault of random images of the film's antagonist haunting the protagonists. There is
a stretch in the movie where one of the two protagonists sees this antagonist, becomes
frightened, and finds it all to be either a dream, a hallucination, or a real-life occurrence. The
scene ends, and the film repeats the same premise with slightly different resolutions each time.
Literally, the same basic scene comes at you over and over again, the only difference being some
grotesque deformity on one of the characters, or some cheap thrill to get audience members to
jump out of their seats.
I will give credit where it is due, and Shutter does get a few things right that makes it
slightly better than expected. The film features a decent stylization from director Masayuki
Ochiai. There isn't much of a story to work with here, and the acting is fairly atrocious from just
about everyone but the film's antagonist (who doesn't even have any lines), but Masayuki
Ochiai's direction is
definitely the bright spot in this film and perhaps the only reason to give it a watch.
Although Shutter revels in more of the same horror clichés so prevalent in the genre
today
(namely throwing scary images on screen for only a split second, and accompanying them with
loud, powerful musical cues), one scene in particular -- found in chapter thirteen on this disc --
proved effective and genuinely scary. The scene, completely dark and lit only by random flashes
from a flash bulb, is intense and well-constructed, a credit to Ochiai's eye for fine direction.
Shutter develops on Blu-ray in typical-of-Fox high quality 1080p, 1.85:1 framed high
definition transfer. Other than flesh tones that sometimes appear too orange (but generally
remain a true-to-life, natural shade) and a bit of crushing in the deep blacks seen in the movie,
Shutter boasts a fine transfer. Natural film grain is present and accounted for over the
entirety of the image, but it never becomes so thick as to distract from the image, only adding a
theatrical quality to the movie that makes looking at it a pleasure. Colors are natural and precise,
and none are overblown. At the 17:25 mark on the counter, we see but on example of the
extraordinary detail in some of the medium-wide street-level shots of the city. We can make out
every detail on signs, which, with strong colors, allows this multifaceted shot to epitomize the fine
quality of the transfer. Even
the more minute details seen in the film, like scuff marks on a tile floor, are rendered on this
1080p image with amazing clarity. Facial detail, too, is displayed with lifelike accuracy. Several
close-ups of the actors revealed every pore and blemish, and even the layers of makeup on the
faces with precision. The print is in meticulous condition, save for only one or
two random black speckles that appeared. Contrast is excellent, and there is no shimmering,
macroblocking, banding, or compression issues in the picture. Fox has once again proven their
worth as a leading provider in high-quality Blu-ray content, no matter how good or bad the story
may be.
Shutter snaps onto Blu-ray with Fox's usual high definition lossless audio codec of choice,
a
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack. A loud soundtrack, it features very deep lows, highs that
are
occasionally muffled but generally crystal-clear, and a solid midrange. There are some nice,
creepy, but generic-at-day's-end atmospherics in the movie, perhaps best exemplified by the
sounds
of what seem to the the creaking and settling of the old building where Ben and Jane are living,
as
heard in chapter five. Surround presence is exceptional, with the oft-duplicated and certainly
tired
and trite ghastly howls, screeches, and other unoriginal "spooky" noises circling the listening
area.
The effect is good, and the soundtrack does a fantastic job of replicating them perfectly, but
ultimately, the effect just isn't scary (which is no fault of the soundtrack itself). Sound is
well-placed throughout the entirety of the soundstage. Even the sound of an elevator door
opening off
to the side is precisely placed for the perfect effect. Imaging and fidelity are fantastic throughout,
and, thanks to the sound quality, you feel yourself an observer inside the movie.
The
subwoofer not only pounds, but it pulsates to excellent effect. Dialogue reproduction offered no
audible shortcomings. Shutter makes for a fine listen, and helps keep the viewer
engaged
in a film that offers little substance.
Shutter provides viewers with more than a mere snapshot of extra footage; this package
is
more akin to an entire memory stick worth of supplements, highlighted by a feature-length
commentary
track
with production executive Alex Sundell, screenwriter Luke Dawson, and actress Rachel Taylor.
This trio provides an engaging listen as they go into detail about the history of the production, the
value of test screenings, scenes that worked well in the original and were brought over to this
version, and other various tidbits that prove more fascinating than the movie itself. This group
does a fantastic job of selling listeners on the movie, and while I don't think the movie is as good
as they
make it out to be, I may re-watch it one day with their thoughts in mind and try to see
it from a different perspective.
A Ghost in the Lens (480p, 8:09) is an examination of the Japanese perception of
ghosts, notably, the "Yurei," a spirit whose life was ended by violent means and remains in this
world to haunt its killers. The feature also looks at the difference in the culture of ghosts and
spirits between East and West. A Cultural Divide: Shooting in Japan (480p, 9:21) looks
at why filming in Japan works for the movie, and the way the characters are shaped by their
surroundings. The Director: Masayuki Ochiai (480p, 9:31) features the director
discussing the film in his own words, in Japanese with English subtitles. A Conversation With
Luke Dawson (480p, 5:33) features the film's screenwriter discussing the advantages of
setting the film in Japan, the positives brought to the project by hiring a Japanese director, the
"fish out of water" perspective of the film's heroine, and more. Fox Movie Channel Presents
In Character With Joshua Jackson (480p, 2:06) is a fluff
interview with the film's star. Fifteen alternate and deleted scenes (480p, 27:18) concludes the
supplements that directly
relate to the movie itself.
Moving along to the extras that don't really pertain to the movie per se, we begin with A
History of Spirit Photography (480p, 4:50), an interesting yet ultimately corny piece that
focuses on the first man to capture the spirit world on camera and the various spiritualist
movements and scams that followed. Create Your Own Phantom Photo (480p, 4:00)
show viewers how to make their very own spirit photos in Photoshop. The Hunt For the
Haunt: Tools and Tips For Ghost Hunting (480p, 2:29) is a text-based beginners guide on
how to find haunted locations and then capture spirits on film. Japanese Spirit Photography
Videos (480p, 17:16) is divided into three parts, and we are warned that "the images that
follow have reportedly driven many viewers to insanity or suicide," so if in the coming days you
don't see my next
scheduled review, College Road Trip, that I am sure everyone
is waiting for with baited breath, you'll know why. This final supplemental entry on the state of
spirit photography in Japan is from Japanese television and is nothing more than
sensationalist
junk about
the spirit world (and I thought American television was bad).
Given the amateurish script, the abysmal acting, and all the expected horror clichés that prove to be
the
bane of director Masayuki Ochiai's Shutter, his talent as a filmmaker elevates the material
just enough to place it in the realm of "watchable." Although the movie never really manages to
scare, gross out, or otherwise display any kind of genuine horror, Shutter is more valiant in
its efforts to actually make something out of nothing than the vast majority of the string of
atrociously bad horror movies to come out over the past decade. 20th Century Fox's presentation
of Shutter on Blu-ray is an excellent one. Wowing viewers with first-rate picture and
sound, and offering those who care a better-than-expected supplemental package, fans of this film
will be more than pleased with the Blu-ray presentation. If you are going to buy one bad horror
movie this year, it may as well be Shutter.
Fox Home Entertainment has announced that they will release the horror film 'Shutter' for Blu-ray on July 15th, day-and-date with the DVD release. Video will be presented as 1080p AVC accompanied by a DTS-HD Master Audio lossless soundtrack. The disc will be encoded ...
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