Shutter – 2004

Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom directed Shutter in such a way that it gives you jump scares throughout the entire film. An important feature of this film is its malleability. It easily mixes with various genres such as thriller and mystery.  Different directors have various mechanisms to portray their story for instance not to show anything until the very end which builds suspense in the audience. However, in Shutter, the image of the ghost appears at the very beginning when Tun was clicking some pictures in a convocation setting.

After leaving the party, he and his girlfriend Jane get into a car accident. She hits a young woman. With much fear instilled in both of them. They drive away, leaving the girl lying on the road. This part of the movie got me thinking  ” Girl why are you doing this to yourself? You do know that young girl is gonna haunt you to death!”

The guilt of hitting the young women tormented Jane. As the movie goes on, a silhouette of a woman starts to appear in Tun’s pictures. Jane experienced eerie incidents in the darkroom too.

Suspicious Jane, went on to further link the women in the picture to be the victim of the accident. Tun was contracted with severe neck pain ever since the accident. to his astonishment upon a checkup with the doctor, his weight doubled from his initial weight.

Jane discovers that the girl was Natre , a bashful young woman who had attended the same college as Tun. Upon confronting Tun, he admits that he and Natre were in a relationship, which was kept unknown to others including his friends.  Despite Natre being immensely in love with Tun, he broke ties with her.

As we further move on to Shutter it gets rather nerve-racking and creepy. Tun and Jane visit Natre’s mother. They discover the decaying body of Natre in her bedroom. It came into their senses that Natre had committed suicide.

Once Jane and Tun were back in Bangkok, she finds a set of negatives hidden behind the bookcase. She finds photographs in which Tun’s friends were sexually assaulting Natre. Disgusted with acts of Tun and his friends, Jane realised that   Natre tried to warn her. Tun admits he was the one who had taken those photos. Peer pressure was the cause for Tun to capture such pictures.  Jane decides to leaves him.

Knowing that tun was haunted by Natre, in anger he throws the camera across the room.  Tun’s eyes then get covered by Natre making him unable to see, making him lose balance and fall out of the window.

The common trait seen in Natre is that she was well matched with the typical Asian ghost which every director portrays it to be. Long loose white dress, frizzy and long hair.

 

The final scene shows a bandaged Tun in a hospital bed. jane came to visit Tun, however, this particular scene caught me off-guard. As the door swings closed behind Jane, the glass reflection shows Natre still sitting on his shoulders. Honestly, that specific scene sent chills down my spine.

Overall it is a film filled with a plethora of emotions. Unlike typically Hollywood horror film where you know what is oming up for you, Shutter keeps you engrossed throughout the entire film. There were jump scares, crestfallen moments when Tun left Natre and ” Why would you do that?” moments.  A great movie and will definitely watch it again!

Catch you next with some touch of glitz and glamour of Bollywood!