Shutter ( ชัตเตอร์ กดติดวิญญาณ )

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Banjong Pisonthanakun, Parkpoon Wongpoom
Starring: Ananda Everingham,
Natthaweeranuch Thongmee "Ja", Achita Sikamana, Unnop Chanpaibool
RunTime: 1 hr 37 mins
Released By: Golden Village
Rating: PG

Released Date: 18 November 2004

                           

Fact about "Shutter":

SHUTTER is Thailand’s Number One local box hit for 2004,grossing more than 105 million baht
(4.3 million Singapore dollars) to date and beating even such Hollywood blockbusters such as
“The Day After Tomorrow” and “Troy”.

Synopsis:

Ton, a 25-year-old photographer, found some flashes appearing in his pictures that he had taken with his friends. The flashes were all in weird forms. Some pictures appeared to have someone standing in front of the camera blocking the whole scene, when in reality no such thing happened during the pictures were taken.

Ton was skeptical until he enlarged the pictures and was convinced that the light did look like a woman’s face.

Soon after, his friends died mysteriously one by one. That’s when he decides to find out for the history behind those haunting pictures…

                              

Movie Review:

When I first saw the poster for Shutter, I was impressed with the collage of paranormal photographs. How would the directors weave a tale with these seemly different and irrelevant paranormal pictures? Will the concepts of using these paranormal pictures become just another gimmick to showcase another boring Asian horror flick?

Somehow first-time Directors, Banjong Pisonthanakun and Parkpoon Wongpoom managed to pull together a horror flick that is both scary and heart wrenching. Although many references or inspiration drawn from recent top-notch horror films such as “The Ring”, “Sixth Sense” and even Leslie Cheung’s last film, “Inner Sense”, would be easy to pick up by discerning audiences, “Shutter” still stands out on its own as a one of Thailand’s best horror film with its interesting storyline and fine acting from the actor and actress (Ananda Everingham and Natthaweeranuch Thongmee).

                              

Moments such as the discovery of supernatural sightings on photographs for the first time and the revelation of the all the hauntings in this film were satisfying enough to warrant more in-depth investigation on your own. The horror flick is brought closer to home by the fact that almost everyone has taken or come across supernatural photos, therein emphasizing the spookiness of it all.

I would not recommend this film to folks who are hardcore horror fans as this film might be unable to offer any new horror elements that have not been seen before. But if you were as intrigued by the paranormal photographs as I was, I would recommend that you catch this film when it’s out in cinema