Shutter

So, last night I couldn’t sleep and I decided to pop in an Asian Extreme movie called Shutter. Now granted I had to read subtitles, but I have found that with these movies it isn’t all that bad. I have always had a fondness for foreign films. Maybe it is just my artsy phartsy side showing but I must say that the Asians have always been able to put a little chill in the air for me when it comes to a good ghost story.

Now with this film we find a story of a group buddies all sharing a drink together, as one of them (Tun Ananda Everingham ) is introducing his new girlfriend, Jane ( Natthaweeranuch Thongmee). Unfortunately after having one few too many, the two love birds wind up running down a mysterious woman. Tun panics and makes Jane leave the spot of the accident. They go back to their lives. Tun is a photographer and at another friend’s college graduation, is taking photos. When he gets the photos developed many of the images are blurred and a face appears in some of them.

Now this is a typical story line of a basic haunting. However, things started to get a bit confusing after that. Now the hit and run thing, apparently no body is ever found. Considering the fact that early in the film it is announced that it is actually Tun’s secret ex-girlfriend who happened to die a few years previous, the whole hit and run thing just made the movie confusing. Also, according to the back of the DVD it mentions his friends start getting killed off one by one. Now this was sort of misleading, as we witness the death of only one friend and the friend’s distraught wife tells Tun that his other two buddies also died the same way. No other mention came up and Tun had no idea. Later it explains why they were marked for death but it sort of gave us a detached feeling about it; ok these people died, so what. We have no emotion for them as we have only seen them in the first five minutes of the film.

Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed in the film though there were little hints to the ending as we went along, which gave some wonderful imagery. The mating ritual of the praying mantis was focused on, so I knew it played an important part in the film. The main point of the film was: Our past sins come back to haunt us. Our lesson learned: When your friend’s gang bang your secret girlfriend, don’t take pictures. And next time my neck starts to hurt, well…I am going to make sure all my ex-boyfriends are still alive and well.

3 pooping transvestites out of 5