ShutterMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 37 out of 100 Generally unfavorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
14 Iffy for 14+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    TV Guide | Maitland McDonagh

    Surprisingly effective supernatural tale in which there's more to fear from the living than the dead. Read full review

  • 50
    Boston Globe |

    If Shutter is any indication, the reputation of professional photographers is still on the wane. Not only are photographs creepy, the film suggests, but so are photographers. Read full review

  • 42
    Entertainment Weekly |

    Seems like a technological regression. Read full review

  • 42
    The Onion A.V. Club | Scott Tobias

    The photography hook gives Shutter the potential to be a genuinely creepy ghosts-in-the-machine story like the original "Pulse," or better still, a horror twist on "Blowup." But one effective scene lit solely by a camera flash isn't enough to rescue this from the J-horror slushpile. Read full review

  • 40
    The Hollywood Reporter | Frank Scheck

    Genuine scares are few and far between, and the climactic explanation for the ghost's appearances comes as something less than a revelation. Read full review

  • 40
    Variety | Dennis Harvey

    A blandly cast and crafted remake of the same-titled 2004 Thai pic that itself emulated J-horror norms, which seemed a lot fresher back then. Read full review

  • 40
    The New York Times |

    The director, Masayuki Ochiai, conjures textbook J-horror miasma: clammy clinical interiors; overcast skies; diffuse cityscapes. He also gives Alfred Hitchcock a nod, with a sequence nakedly stolen from "Psycho," and draws unease from Jane's disorientation in a foreign city. Tokyo, in fact, may be the movie's most fascinating player. Read full review

  • 38
    San Francisco Chronicle |

    Fans of J-horror (for Japan, where the genre was born; its conventions have since spread to South Korea and Thailand) will find Shutter familiar; others may just doze. Read full review

  • 30
    Village Voice |

    Ostensibly a remake of a Thai film--by a Japanese director with a Hollywood cast--this plays more like a video copy of "The Ring" that's been so degraded that all the good bits are no longer visible. Read full review

  • 20
    Austin Chronicle | Marc Savlov

    The very Thai-specific charms that made the original Shutter such an unforeseen, unpredictable delight when I first saw it and when I screened it again, last night are almost entirely absent here, eclipsed by the annoying blonde highlights of Taylor, ex-Transformer babe and forever, as the Thai say, farang. Read full review

View more reviews for Shutter on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 14+ Bad script, so-so scares mar Asian horror remake.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this horror movie includes some graphic violence, including the bloody effects of a ghost's assaults on victims. There's also a jarring car accident; a leap from a balcony that has a hard, bloody ending on the sidewalk; and a camera eyepiece that pierces a character's eye. The ghost appears repeatedly in shadows and scares people. A sexual assault appears in photos and a flashback scene. The movie also includes some sexual imagery, showing women in bras and panties, as well as naked backs. There's some language and drinking, and a scene shows men agreeing to put a date-rape drug in a woman's wine.
  • Families can talk about how this movie is similar to and different from other horror films based on Asian originals. What do these movies tend to have in common? What makes this one different? Families can also discuss how the movie uses both technology and legends to create suspense.
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: A grumpy husband yells at his wife; a ghost haunts several people; characters lie and commit violent acts.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Car accident early in the film shows victim slammed by vehicle and tumbling under the wheels, and the car screeching and crashing into a tree. Repeated tense scenes in dark hallways or rooms; several jump scenes in which a ghost, shadow, or person appears unexpectedly. In the darkroom, Ben splashes a chemical on his face and hallucinates blood all over his eyes and face. A camera eyepiece explodes into a photographer's eye, leaving him dead (bloody face in close-up). A man leaps from a balcony with a thud (close-up of a bloody head/eye). Ghost sticks ugly long tongue in Ben's mouth; he gags and coughs and appears to suffocate. Photos show sexual assault on a woman. Man electrocutes himself.
  • sex false3 Sex: Newlyweds kiss and embrace passionately, then the wife suggests they "get this thing consummated," though nothing is shown. Some bra-and-panties shots of women -- one straddling a man, another posing for pictures. Ghost climbs into bed with Ben and pulls her dress over her head, showing her back, which is decomposed and gross.
  • language false3 Language: One use of "f--k," plus other profanity, including "s--t" and "goddammit."
  • consumerism false3 Consumerism: Mac laptops; neon signs in Tokyo show various brand names.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Characters drink champagne, wine, beer. Men put date-rape drug in a woman's drink.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

1.0

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… even more unfrightening than The Eye … Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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