Shutter (2008 film)

Shutter
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Masayuki Ochiai
Screenplay by	Luke Dawson
Produced by	Takashige Ichise Roy Lee Doug Davison
Starring	Joshua Jackson Rachael Taylor Megumi Okina
Cinematography	Katsumi Yanagijima
Edited by	Michael Knue Tim Alverson
Music by	Nathan Barr
Production companies	Regency Enterprises New Regency Vertigo Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	March 21, 2008 (2008-03-21)
Running time	85 minutes (Theatrical cut) 90 minutes (Unrated cut)
Country	United States
Languages	English Japanese
Budget	$8 million
Box office	$48 million

Shutter is a 2008 American supernatural horror film directed by Masayuki Ochiai and starring Joshua Jackson, Rachael Taylor, and Megumi Okina. The film is a remake of the 2004 Thai horror film of the same name and was released on March 21, 2008. Despite a generally negative reaction, the film was a box office success grossing nearly 6 times its budget.

Plot

Ben Shaw (Joshua Jackson) and his new bride, Jane (Rachael Taylor), leave New York City for Tokyo, Japan, where Ben has a job as a photographer. While travelling by car in the wilderness of the countryside, Jane accidentally hits a girl, Megumi (Megumi Okina), standing in the middle of the road and ends up running over her. They find no trace of her body and decide to leave, thinking the victim was uninjured and had left. They later start to find mysterious lights in their photos, which are identified as spirit photography by Ben's assistant, Seiko Nakamura. Jane begins to have eerie dreams and visions which seem like they are trying to tell her something, and senses a presence stalking them. Ben begins experiencing severe shoulder pain and his friends begin to comment on how he looks bent and hunched over, but the doctor finds no source of injury. Seiko takes Jane to her ex-boyfriend, Ritsuo (James Kyson Lee), whose career is to investigate and publish paranormal activities, and he tells them that the lights in the photos are spirits as well as manifestations of intense emotions that are trying to be communicated. At a subway station, Jane spots the ghostly presence of the girl she hit and ran over, causing her to believe that she killed the girl. Later, Ben has a similarly-terrifying encounter. They go to a medium, Murase, to find out more about the spiritual activity that has been happening to them. Murase takes the photos and begins to speak very emotionally, but Ben refuses to translate what Murase says and storms out, claiming that he is a fraud.

Ben's friends, Adam (John Hensley) and Bruno (David Denman), are killed by Megumi. After witnessing Bruno's death, Ben wants to leave but Jane hands Ben their wedding photo, which shows a distorted picture of Megumi. They realize she has been with them the entire time and go to Megumi's home, only to find her decayed body. She had committed suicide with potassium cyanide long before the car impact and thus they had actually first encountered her as a ghost at that time.

That night, Ben is tortured by Megumi. Jane screams at Megumi to leave them alone; 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 show Megumi. With Megumi's clues, Jane finds a camera in a trunk and uploads the memory card into the laptop. There, Jane sees 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.

Ben returns home, where he tries to explain to a distraught Jane that he felt it was the only way to drive Megumi away. They had planned on using the pictures as blackmail against Megumi if she didn't leave him alone but it turned into rape. He absolves himself of blame because he never touched her. This explains why Megumi murdered Adam and Bruno, and why she has been haunting Ben. Believing that Megumi was trying to warn her, and disgusted by Ben's past actions, Jane concludes that she can't spend her life with someone like Ben so she leaves him. Ben tries to stop her, but Megumi locks the door and doesn't let him.

Driven mad by Megumi, Ben throws the camera across the room. It takes a picture of him, showing Megumi sitting astride his shoulders. Remembering his shoulder pains and the hospital where a nurse weighed Ben and it showed the weight of two people, Ben realizes that Megumi has been with him all along since her suicide without his knowledge. Horrified, and in a desperate attempt to rid himself of her, he electrocutes himself. He is rendered catatonic and sent to a mental institution, where he is shown sitting slumped over on the edge of his bed. The last scene shows 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
• James Kyson Lee as Ritsuo
• Daisy Betts as Natasha
• Maya Hazen as Seiko Nakamura
• Yoshiko Miyazaki as Akiko
• Kei Yamamoto as Murase

Release

Critical reception

The film received generally negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 9% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 65 reviews. 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. As of June 26, 2008, it has grossed a total of $47,879,410 worldwide – $25,928,550 in the United States and Canada and $21,950,860 in other territories.

The film's $8 million budget and its almost $48 million worldwide grossing has secured the film as an extremely lucrative success.

Home media

Shutter was released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 15, 2008. The Unrated Edition runs 5 minutes longer and includes commentary, featurettes, deleted scenes, and an alternate ending.

See also

• List of ghost films

Soundtrack

Shutter: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Film score by Nathan Barr
Released	March 18, 2008
Label	Lakeshore Records

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 & Lisbeth 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

Remakes

Shutter (2004) (Thai)	Sivi (2007) (Tamil)	Shutter (2008) (English)	Click (2010) (Hindi)	Photo (2006) (Telugu)
Ananda Everingham	Yogi Srinivasan	Joshua Jackson	Shreyas Talpade	Anand
Natthaweeranuch Thongmee	Anuja Iyer	Rachael Taylor	Sadha	Anjali

External links

• Shutter at IMDb
• Shutter at AllMovie
• Shutter at Box Office Mojo
• Shutter at Rotten Tomatoes
• Shutter at Metacritic