The Plot:
Ben and Jane have just gotten married. Even better, he has a job in Japan, meaning the couple can honeymoon by Mt. Fuji before settling down for several weeks in Tokyo. On the way to their love nest, Jane is convinced she's hit someone with her car. Her photographer hubby promises to take care of everything. Days later, the Missus swears she sees the victim along the Ginza. Odder still, several of the photos the pair took while in the country are ruined with what looks like an eerie white light. When a local publisher of supernatural periodicals suggests that these are spirit images, Jane seeks the help of a noted psychic. Though provided in un-translated Japanese, his advice seems dire indeed. In fact, it turns out Ben knows the young lady in ways his new wife could never imagine. And what happened to her one drug-fueled night may explain why every camera catches her ghostly visage before the Shutter finally closes.

The DVD:
Somewhere in the Hall of Cinematic Categories, in the Foreign Film Building, located within the Asian wing, is the J-Horror inspired genre exhibit. And featured, as part of the generic description of what makes up an Eastern fright flick, is Shutter. It's a nice little display, exploring how original efforts like Ringu and Ju-On ending up devolving into such stereotypical schlock like this Thai to US adaptation. All the formulaic elements are present and accounted for: the pissed off spirit with the pasty complexion and format mandated long black hair; the stranger in a strange land foreigner who finds themselves stumbling around like a live eel waiting for the sushi chef; the occult expert who explains how horrible acts tie themselves to the humans responsible for the wrong; the collection of clues, each one announcing its obviousness while supplying some ridiculous and routine red herrings; and let's not forget the deciding denouement, the moment when our heroine (typically) puts two and two together and discovers why her ceiling is leaking, her TV is on the fritz, or why her home is infested with the sudden appearance of a wide-mouthed, half-naked child who crawls like a crab and shrieks like a cat.

Yes, Shutter is just that derivative. If you looked in the dictionary under 'subpar ethnic horror', it would exist somewhere between some Lithuanian torture porn and Seytan, the Turkish Exorcist. For director Masayuki Ochiai, it's a 'can't win' situation. On the one hand, if he delivers a wonderful and ethereal fright flick, he must face the fading fortunes of the already DOA filmic category. Just because it's good doesn't mean audiences will line up to see it. If, on the other hand, he creates some crap - which this movie certainly is - he's put yet another nail in the fad's already over-spiked and mostly buried coffin. Frankly, Shutter feels more unnecessary than anything. It doesn't need to exist, especially when it is mining material done differently (and not necessarily better) by uneventful also-rans like One Missed Call, The Eye, Pulse, and (insert requisite remake title here). Had the story been about something other than a needy office drone, her obsession with an a-hole American jerkbag, the stupid frat boy way she dies, and the resulting haunted housewares that happen to the bastard's newlywed - and rather dense - bride, we might be able to tolerate the familiarity. But Shutter just repeats the canon's creative pitfalls, predicating its failure on the flopsweat of bomb's past.

A different cast may have helped. Relying on actors whose main claim to fame is endless episodes of a tween soap opera (Joshua Jackson's stint on Dawson's Creek) or a couple of cruddy horror films (Rachael Taylor's turns in Man-Thing and See No Evil) does not guarantee a strong center to your film. Even worse, trusting untried scribe Luke Dawson with the script is like enlisting a dental student to extract your eye teeth without Novocain or instruments. These inconsistent elements frequently bump into each other like ex-lovers at a party, the result being an uncomfortable time for everyone stuck watching their anxiety. There are sequences when Ochiai tries to rise above, like when Ben learns that he's literally carrying his guilt over the dead Megumi on his shoulders, and the whole sequence involving the spirit photography magazine illustrates the promise potential in the storyline. But Shutter still can't get beyond the basics, which in this case means it can't deliver goods it was never designed to defy in the first place. If ever there was a poster child for the end of Western J-Horror (and other Asian country) adaptations, this movie is it. Not only does it offer every cliché in the genre's status, it proves how pathetic they are in our present cinematic context.

The Video:
Presented by Fox in every critic's favorite "Screening Only" review copy format (complete with random logo placement), it's hard to comment on the image here. The transfer offered is relatively impressive, but then again, it's not final product. One hopes the eventual 1.85:1 widescreen anamorphic image surpasses the slightly compressed version experienced for this review. In addition, this critic finds it hard to comment on how "Unrated" this DVD version is. There is no excess blood, and a decided lack of nudity. As long as one remembers that such a rating reflects ANY content the MPAA failed to consider the first time around (including a boring dialogue scene or two), the movie must be presented sans score - just like this look at the tech specs.

The Audio:
Though information indicates that this screener provides all the necessary sonic situations of the final Fox packaging, this critic will again reserve judgment. The Dolby Digital 5.1 offered was good, but not great. The back channels come alive whenever the spook show starts up, but the rest of the time, the speakers hardly spark. The musical score is the standard amalgamation of indie pop slop and cheep horror cues, and the dialogue is easily discernible.

The Extras:
For a major league box office bomb, Fox went out of its way to flesh out this film. The screener DVD contains several bonus features, starting off with a full length commentary track with executive producer Alex Sundell, script-boy Dawson and ersatz eye candy Taylor. It's a tad too obvious in its "here's a plot point" descriptions, but the insights into the differences in East/West moviemaking and the changes made from the original Thai version are actually compelling. The same can't be said for the 11 lame deleted/alternative scenes provided. They are nothing more than character snippets properly placed on the cutting room floor. In addition, there are several featurettes, the best being The Director: Masayuki Ochiai (a good Q&A with the man behind the lens) and A Cultural Divide: Shooting in Japan (in which some of the cast and crew offer anecdotes about the complicated social gap). The other offerings - a look at spirit photography, a chance to make your own ghost snapshot, interviews with the actors, and some text-based suggestions on successful spook spotting - are less effective. Toss in some trailers and it's a relatively decent collection of added content. Too bad the movie itself is too miserable to warrant these supplements.

Final Thoughts:
Easily earning a Skip It for everything it merely warms over, Shutter should hopefully signal the end of mock Asian macabre. Even Ochiai laments that his fellow countrymen are sick of the fashion model specter with the ironed ink jet coiffeur. It makes one wonder if the Japanese or Chinese are afraid of anything other than their kid sister in gloomy Goth mode. And don't believe that the lack of a problematic PG-13 means that this movie suddenly grew some Gyozas. There is nothing remotely gory or gratuitous here. Instead, this particular exhibit will remain, dusty and ignored, unable to get even the most obsessive fan of the genre to stumble by and offer up a glance. This is why one should feel sorry for spirits. With movies like Shutter capitalizing on their ethereal state, their cinematic fortunes are destined to die off quickly. But don't worry, the undead will be back. As with all things frightening, zombies will definitely get the cyclical call-up to suck again one day.

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