Boooooooring! Not to be confused with the 2008 American remake (although maybe it should be), Shutter is a dud. Sorry, perhaps I'm being unfair, or insensitive, but there comes a point when "subtle" and "deliberate" become "non-existent" and "slower than molasses". It seems like I'm in the minority in disliking this one, as it gets pretty positive reviews on all the usual online haunts, but I just couldn't get into it. Slow moving (not always a bad thing, but in this case, a very bad thing), only a few mild shocks along the way, and the "big" payoff at the end feels tacked on.
Shutter has neither the incredibly terrifying scares of Ju-on or Ringu (at the time - they've become neutered by incessant mimicry over the past few years), nor the slow burn intensity and creeping dread of Gin gwai or Kairo. The filmmakers botch what seems like a cool concept, even if the whole "I see dead people" thing had already been kicking around for half a decade. It shows that Shutter was made two years after the most recent of those films listed, as it tries to get ponderous and serious with the filmic device that by that time had been done to death, and more importantly, one that got its power from viscerally preying on the audience's senses and mucking around with their primal fears.
There is far better Asian horror out there, and you're well off starting with any of the titles above if you haven't yet seen them. Even Kid the Kobbler braved a near-fatal bike crash to get to the NA premiere of Ju-on at Fantasia all those years ago, so you've got no excuse. If you've been living under a cock for the past seven years, please go watch Ju-on now; it will make you cry. As for Shutter....shudder (sorry, that was retarded).
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