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Shutter
R1 - America - Tartan Video Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and Shane Roberts (18th April 2007). |
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The Film
 After a night out drinking with his fellow graduate friends, photography student Tun (Ananda Everingham) and his girlfriend Jane (Nattaweeranuch Thongmee) accidentally run down a girl who's standing in the middle of the road. After panicking and leaving without stopping to help, Jane begins to have nightmares and Tun finds ghost-like images in the backgrounds of his photos. When his friends start apparently committing suicide, Tun and Jane's investigations lead to more possible incidents of guilt concerning another student, Natre (Achita Sikamana). They may only be in their mid-twenties and this their debut film, but "Shutter's" Thai co-directors Parkpoom Wongpoom and Banjong Pisanthanakun have a fantastic feel for what makes an atmospheric, tension filled ghost story. If you're a horror fan like I am and have liked any of the recent wave of Asian horror with films such as "Ringu" (1998), "Ju-on" (2000) or "The Eye" (2002), then you'll love this. Although it's obviously influenced by the films mentioned above and numerous others (freaky white faced female ghost with long wet black hair seeks revenge) it also has enough originality and some great subtle twists to stop it being just another cash-in. Add to this some of the scariest scenes and jumps since the original "Dark Water" (2002), which is my personal favorite Asian horror, and "Ringu" and you've got one really entertaining movie. The acting from all three leads is also outstanding, especially Everingham who, as Tun, has to show several different sides to his character as the story moves in unexpected directions. Thongmee as Jane has the most straightforward and possibly the only completely sympathetic character but she does really well to make Jane far more interesting than the usual screaming girlfriend, Sikamana is good as the quiet reclusive student and then downright terrifying as the vengeful ghost. I highly recommend this to all horror fans and suggest watching this version before this year's unnecessary US remake is released and ruins all the twists.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1, this anamorphic transfer isn't going to turn heads but it does a good job regardless. The image is at times a bit soft with grain making its presence known throughout most dimly lit shots. The colors are well balanced and overall it's a very clean print but I found that the noise amongst the black levels was enough to flatten the image and take away some depth that would have benefited the film.
Audio
Three audio tracks are included on this release all of which are in Thai, the first is a DTS 5.1 surround track, we also have a Dolby Digital 5.1 and also a Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround track. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its DTS soundtrack. Tartan continues to impress by including strong DTS tracks for their releases; "Shutter" has an incredibly active and aggressive sound mix that manages to balancing act between subtle atmospheric ambient noise and hair-raising and haunting effects that utilize the complete sound space. It's a dynamic mix that displays a broad range and makes a welcomed addition to this DVD. Optional subtitles are included in both English and Spanish. The English subtitles are easy to read and I could not spot any spelling or grammatical errors.
Extras
A series of 4 "Behind-the-Scenes" featurettes are included: - "Car Crash" which runs for 56 seconds, the director's take us through the filming process of this scene focusing on the stunt work and real accident they had while filming. - "Suicide" runs for 1 minute 34 seconds, this takes a look at how they achieved the building top suicide with use of a wire rig. - "Ladder" runs for 1 minute 50 seconds, this looks at shooting the ladder sequence in the rain and the use of a new camera rig to achieve certain shots. - "Real Picture from Location" runs for 1 minute 11 seconds, this clip takes a look at a location photo taken by the cameraman which upon closer inspection seems to have some strange figure in the background. Also on the disc is an interview with the directors and cast which runs for 2 minutes 21 seconds. In this brief clip the participants comment on the premise of the film, researching the subject matter, casting the right people and the cast talks about their roles. This is fairly basic stuff that doesn't inspire repeat viewing. Also included in the film's original theatrical trailer which runs for 2 minutes 36 seconds. Finally the extras are capped off with a series of bonus trailers for: - "Tartan Asia Extreme" spot which runs for 1 minute 18 seconds. - "A Tale of Two Sisters" which runs for 1 minute 53 seconds. - "The Red Shoes" which runs for 2 minutes 18 seconds. - "The Maid" which runs for 2 minutes. - "The Ghost" which runs for 2 minutes 1 second. - "The Heirloom" which runs for 1 minute 37 seconds.
Packaging
This disc is packaged in an amaray case housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Overall
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