2008 American film
Shutter is a 2008 American supernatural horror film directed by Masayuki Ochiai and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was written by Luke Dawson and is a remake on the 2004 Thai film of the same name. Its story follows newlywed couple Ben and Jane who have just moved to Japan for a promising job opportunity. After a tragic car accident that leads to the death of a young girl, Ben begins noticing strange blurs in many of his fashion shoot photographs, which Jane suspects is the spirit of the dead girl that they killed. The film stars Joshua Jackson, Rachael Taylor, and Megumi Okina.
It was produced by Regency Enterprises and was released on March 21, 2008.[3] It grossed $10.4 million in its opening weekend and $48 million worldwide, against an $8 million budget, making the film a box office success, but was negatively received from critics.
Plot
Ben Shaw and his new wife Jane leave New York for Tokyo, Japan, where Ben has a job as a photographer. While traveling, Jane hits a girl in the middle of the wilderness. Later they start to find mysterious lights in their photos. 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. Ben's assistant takes them to her ex-boyfriend, who says that the lights are spirits, manifestations of intense emotions. They then go to a psychic, Murasame, who Ben soon claims is a hack and refuses to translate what he says.
Jane decides to visit the office building in the photo. She goes to the floor where the light has gathered in the empty office and takes photos. She encounters the girl's spirit, learns her name is Megumi and that Ben knew her. When Jane confronts Ben, he admits that he and Megumi were once in a relationship but when her father died she became very obsessive and clingy. He eventually dumped her with help from his two friends. Jane is upset with Ben and decides they need to find Megumi.
They go to Megumi's home and find her decayed body; she had committed suicide with potassium cyanide. Elsewhere, Ben's friends Adam and Bruno 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. Finally, Ben is attacked by the ghost of Megumi who attempts to choke him. After nearly throwing Jane through a nearby window, Megumi stops, leaving Ben alive.
After Megumi's funeral, Ben and Jane return to New York. Jane finds some recent photos in an envelope which still show Megumi. She finds other photos, taken by Ben, Adam, and Bruno forcing themselves on Megumi. Ben tries to explain he felt it was the only way to drive Megumi away, as nothing else was working. This was the reason Ben didn't want to translate what the psychic said earlier. Disgusted by Ben's past actions and realizing that Megumi was trying to warn her, Jane leaves him saying she will not spend the rest of her life with him.
Angered, Ben begins photographing the apartment looking for Megumi. After throwing the camera across the room, it takes a picture of him, showing Megumi sitting astride on his shoulders. The movie pans back to the hospital where a nurse is weighing Ben, showing 275 pounds, the weight of two people. In an effort to rid himself of her, he electrocutes himself. He is rendered completely catatonic and sent to a mental institution. The last scene is a reflection of the glass from the door, showing Megumi still latched to his back.
Release
Critical reception
The film received generally negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 11% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 66 reviews. The site's consensus states, "Being a remake of a Thai horror film instead of Japanese doesn't prevent Shutter from being another lame Asian horror remake."[4] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 37 out of 100, based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by Cinemascore gave the film a grade of C on a scale of A+ to F.
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 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]
