When driving home from a wedding, photographer Tun and his girlfriend Jane accidently hit a girl standing in the road. Jane wants to go out and help but Tun holds her back and eventually they flee the scene. The next day Tun notices strange shadows in his photographs and a creepy face appearing in them as well. Jane is starting having nightmares and soon Tun has them too and in the nightmares he recognizes a girl whom he dated while in college. Things didn't work out with the girl who's name was Natre and who was a looner. And later on something horrible happened to her involving him and his friends. A dark secret from his past that seems to have been brought back to life once again.
Shutter is by far the best Thai horror movie to date. It was rather unexpected to see such a genuinely good and impressive horror movie come out of Thailand and it all came like a big surprise. Japan has proven to be able to do wonders when it comes to horror, even Korea has by now made its fair share of horror, but most horror from Thailand has failed to impress, that's until now. Shutter has everything a good scary flick should have, it's creepy, has an interesting story and it will make you jump.
Like so many times before we're dealing with a ghost girl with long black hair here too but it's not as unoriginal or bad as it might sound. Since Tun is a photographer and with the girl showing up in the photographs, the movie obviously deals a lot with photos (hell it's even called Shutter). But the photos here are effective, creepy and has an overall realistic feel to them which makes the movie even more scary.
 
The character development is very good and we get to know and feel for the main characters that is Tun and the ghost girl Natre. Thing is that I can't say to much about what's actually happening in the movie without spoliing it for you and that is something I don't wanna do. Let me just say that the story development is extremely good and the further the movie goes, the more interesting and creepy it gets. The movie has a constant eerie atmosphere and is full of really effective scares every here and there. It's not a movie that'll give you nightmares but if you're not afraid when watching it, there must be something seriously wrong with you.
Little by little we get to know the background story to who the ghost really is and about Tun and his dark past. What is different in Shutter is that you feel sympathy for Tun, both before and after his secret is revealed and at the same time you're bound to feel sympathy for the ghost girl who is not some pure evil Sadako type ghost. It's easy to get caught in the story as we get to know more and more the further it goes and it's interesting and constanly filled with suspense and an overall eerie atmosphere.
The acting is really good and the guy who plays Tun really stands out, giving an excellent performance. And even though we get to know that he has done something bad in his past, and even flees the scene in the beginning when they hit the girl in the road, he's still a very likable character.
If you're into Asian horror, Shutter is something that shouldn't be missed. It's an impressive Thai flick that is filled with great suspensefull horror to the brim and that has an ending that delivers as well. I really hope there'll be more flicks like this coming out of Thailand in the future. Truly recommended.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Shutter: They Are Around Us
MOVIE YEAR: 2004
DIRECTOR: Banjong Pisanthanakun, Parkpoom Wongpoom
WRITING CREDITS: Banjong Pisanthanakun, Sopon Sukdapisit
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Ananda Everingham, Natthaweeranuch Thongmee, Achita Sikamana
COUNTRY: Thailand
RUNTIME: 97 min
RATING: 9/10
Shutter Website/IMDB Click here
Shutter Trailer Click here
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