Blu-ray Movie Reviews

A young photographer and his wife discover mysterious shadows in their photographs after a tragic accident. They soon learn that you can never escape the past as a ghost continuously haunts them.

The Asian remakes continue with this one and unfortunately I can’t say this one excels where others fail. Hollywood has been trying to find the next Ring for some time now but unfortunately it just hasn’t happened. This one does a decent job with tension but the scares and horror aspect fall flat. The story moves along at a predictable pace and despite some interesting twists, fails to impress enough for a recommendation.

Fox delivers a solid HD transfer for this one and continues to impress with their day-and-date titles. Colors are vibrant and lean a bit toward the amber side and contrast is exceptional throughout most of the film. Dimensional quality is excellent and since this is a newer film the print source seems to be in impeccable shape. Fans of the film will not be disappointed.

Shutter is presented with an aggressive 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix that will give your subwoofers a big run for their money. I was impressed with the infrasonics this track brings and the sound designers didn’t skimp on the use of the surround soundstage. Panning effects heighten the mood of the film and there are very subtle environmental cues that add a lot to the mix. Dialogue is balanced nicely in the main soundstage. Overall an extremely effective mix for a modern horror film.

Despite the rather poor box-office showing and critic’s consensus, Fox has included quite a few supplements for this one. A feature commentary tops off a long list of production features and also a couple of interviews with lead actor Joshua Jackson and the screenplay writer. There are some inventive themed features as well allowing you to get into the subject matter including ghost hunting and a collection of deleted scenes are also included.

This is another disappointing remake of foreign horror and I really hope we’re seeing the end of these. Fox has done a great job with the A/V presentation but that can’t really make up for the predictable thrills.