Movie|Shutter – LOL [Spoop Fest #7]

Hello, hello loves!~ As you all know, I’ve been doing a series of posts called BAYOG Spoop Fest for the spoopy season (I’ll return to my usual posts in November). We’ve covered some webtoons like [0.0 Mhz], [Shriek], [Unknown Caller], and [Chiller]. Along with the webtoons, I wanted to cover some well known Asian horror movies. I already the romantic horror-comedy (more comedy than horror really) [Pee Mak Phra Khanong].Today’s I’ll be continuing BAYOG’s Spoop Fest with another movie post! Today’s post will be one of the classics of Asian horror films, Shutter. It is available on Netflix [LINK].

The 2004 film Shutter (ชัตเตอร์ กดติดวิญญาณ) is one of the most well known titles in Asian horror. It’s also probably the most well known Thai horror film as well. It was directed and written by Bangjong Pisanthankun and Parkpoom Wongpoom. This was Bangjong Pisanthakun’s first film. He was also the one behind Pee Mak Phra Khanong. Both directors/writers also worked together on several other well known projects like the 2007 film แฝด/Twins (Known internationally as Alone), คนกลาง/”The Man in the Middle” from the 2008 film สี่แพร่ง/Crossroads (Known internationally as 4bia or Phobia), and คนกอง/Camera Crew (also known as “In the End”)” from the 2009 omnibus film ห้าแพร่ง/5 Crossroads (Known internationally as Phobia 2). It stars Ananda Matthew Everingham and “Ja” Natthaweeranuch Thongmee. Ananda Everingham is an incredibly well known Thai actor. This film is probably one of the most famous ones from the Australian-Lao actor’s career. Ja is also known for starring in a horror film called I Miss U (รักฉัน อย่าคิดถึงฉัน/Love Me, Don’t Miss Me). Ironically, she was the vengeful spirit in that one.

PLOT
Photographer Tun and his girlfriend Jane attend his friend’s wedding. Everything seems to be all happy and fun until the drive home. While driving, Jane seems to have hit a woman by accident. It seems like a bad impact and the woman isn’t moving. Jane is in shock and unsure what to do. As she’s about to finally get out and check on the woman, Tun orders her to immediately drive away. They high tail out of the area, and the woman’s condition is unknown. That’s when their problems begin. Jane’s conscience takes a toll on her. She has nightmares, and starts to worry about the woman’s condition. Tun starts capturing weird shadows and images in his photographs. Both start to have very bizarre and frightening experiences as the woman seems to be haunting them. They try to investigate the woman and her whereabouts. However, things take a turn as the mystery starts to unravel and their lives may be in danger.

As I also mentioned in a previous opinion post [LINK], this movie was one of the Asian horror films that had a Hollywood remake. Yeah, didn’t watch that.  I do remember some people being upset that Hollywood took a Thai film and just made it into a Japan related horror film. I think people were just mad that they just lumped Asians into only one group. Buuuut, that’s a discussion for another day.

While Shutter is incredibly famous, I have to admit that I had actually never watched it. I remember seeing the trailer when it first came out. I also remember having seen only bits of it when my relatives watched it. However, back then I was hella scared of all the things. I remember Shutter was praised as being an incredibly scary Thai movie. So I never thought to watch it. Years later, I started getting used to horror films and all. I’m not easily afraid as I was back then. Still, I wasn’t sure if I could handle Shutter. Then BAM, it was available on Netflix. It’s spoopy season, so I said, “Fuck it. I’ll watch it.” And so I watched it during my lunch break at work. While it was a pretty good film, considering when it came out, I actually ended up laughing more than feeling scared. More on that later though.

[Some Spoilers Ahead; I’ll try to keep it minimal and be more vague so I don’t spoil too much]

So in my honest opinion, it’s not a horrible film. Is it the best? Not really. Still enjoyable though. Considering  when this movie came out, it was not bad. What made the movie good would be the plot twists. I’d say plot twists are kind of like Bangjong Pisanthankun’s signature when it comes to his films. You can definitely see it in his contributions to 4bia, Phobia 2, and Pee Mak Phra Khanong. However, seeing as Shutter is his first film, it’s obvious that it feels a bit weaker in comparison to his later works. Again, understandable since it was his first film. While his other films definitely have more comedy and a bit more of a light-hearted feel. Shutter is definitely more on the pure horror spectrum. Although it did have a few little jokes here and there. I definitely enjoy his later films more. I’m just more of a horror-comedy fan, and I felt like the later films are definitely more solid. Still, it wasn’t a horrible film. I also have to say I appreciate the foreshadowing moments as well.

I think my issues with the movie was just the pacing. I also just wished there was a bit more built into the story and scenes. For me, sometimes it felt a bit slow…and other times it felt like it was all being rushed. It’s like being at point A and expecting to be at point B, but you’re all the sudden at D instead. I really wished that the film built up more of the plot with a few extra scenes. You find some characters die, but I really wished it showed a bit more of what led them to their death. I wish we could’ve seen what they saw. I feel like it would’ve helped added more to the movie. The fact that it’s just kinda shown “Hey, they dead now” just made it feel like it was lacking something. It felt a bit lackluster for me. The movie did have some decent scares and atmosphere though; Thanks to the music and sound effects. The music and sound effects definitely helped build a suspenseful and thriller type of atmosphere. Although, personally sometimes I was just a bit surprised more because I just found it to be a tad bit too loud. The ghost is your typical hella pale Asian ghost lady with long hair. Again, common starting from that era of Asian horror films.

Sometimes she did seem creepy and scary. For the most part, that kind of make up just felt a bit underwhelming to me? So I was like, “Meh”. Buuut, she did have her scary moments.

Like I said, I unexpectedly found Shutter to be more funny than scary. It wasn’t meant to be funny, it’s just that I personally didn’t find those scary parts scary. I know it definitely would’ve scared my friends. However, I found myself busting out laughing. I’ll talk that later in a hella spoiler section. I personally don’t find it an amazing movie, but I don’t feel like it’s terrible either. It was just aiight. It did deliver in serving some pretty good scares. It’s a very typical Asian horror film from the early 2000s. It was still interesting to watch. I felt alot of emotions from uneasiness, confusion, laughter, sadness, and anger. That one part though… Y’all, you can’t be an asshole in a horror movie. You gonna get your comeuppance, that’s all I’mma say. *mic drop*

Also I will say, I still hate official English subs. They’re so weird sometimes… Also, I feel like a foreign audience might’ve missed out on a few things because of cultural differences. So I’ll be doing a little guide now. Below that I’ll put my hella spoiler related comments.

MINTY’S CULTURAL CHEAT/TRIVIA SHEET


Why is everyone in the pics dressed like that? People who work government jobs get to have fancy portraits in full decked out attire. Many of my relatives work government related jobs and have photos like this too. So if you’re a politician, military, navy, police, or even a government related desk job and so on, you get to take one of these. Teachers have similar photos, but they wear the special uniforms that teachers wear.

I’m not 100% sure, but I’m pretty sure they’re at a Thai-Chinese temple to burn away the bad luck. Your girl has mostly been to Thai Buddhist temples (though not often). I used to visit a Thai-Chinese temple a few times when I was younger when visiting my dad’s side in Thailand…because surprise…I’m Thai-Chinese on my dad’s side.

This scene is a Thai Buddhist funeral. So specifically, Thais are mostly Theravada Buddhists; If you didn’t know there are 4 main sects of Buddhism. Theravada Buddhism is like the conservative and oldest form of Buddhism. Texts, prayers, and incantations are said in Pali.

I’m not sure if this was done intentionally, but 4 is considered a very unlucky number in several East Asian cultures; Such as in Chinese, Japan, and Korea. The reason being that it’s a number closely associated with death. One of the reasons being that in Chinese, the number 4 is pronounced very similar to the word for “death” ; Chinese is a tonal language so both are pronounced as “si”, but with different tonal pronunciations. To my knowledge, 4 isn’t exactly considered an unlucky number in Thai culture. Although it probably is amongst the Thai-Chinese community. And judging by the temple they went to at the beginning, that would make sense.

[WARNING: SOME HELLAAAAAA SPOILERS AHEAD]

So like I said, the ghost’s make up kind of felt underwhelming to me at times. Although, she did have some hella creepy and scary moments.

There were times I felt a bit anxious, but I didn’t really feel scared. There were a few times I just found the “scary” parts hella funny. Like there’s a part where Tun sees the ghost and hits the pedal. However, he can’t seem to elude the ghost as she seems to follow him. You see her basically crawl (fly???) next to the window. I busted my ass laughing. It just seemed hella laughable.

Let me tell you what went through my mind during this scene:
–Jesus take the wheel…
–I’m Superman!
–We’re soariiiiing, flyiiiiiiing~~~

I just couldn’t take it seriously.

Then you had scenes where I just wasn’t sure to be scared and creeped out, or to laugh. Like certainly there was a creepy aspect, but at the same time it just seemed hilarious.

This is from your typical, “The ghost is chasing you!!” scenes. Yes, it’s creepy she’s hanging upside down. However she also just looks hella ridiculous to me. Same with her crawling down the ladder. Her face is hella gross and creepy AF. The way she moves is unnerving and creepy too. However, it also just looked hella funny since she’s crawling upside down. I know, I should be more creeped out. However, the ridiculousness weighed more than the creepiness.

One of the major plot twists is that the spirit has ties to Tun. It turns out that he’s been having neck pains because the ghost is just riding his neck. Is it creepy, yeah. However, I again just thought it looked more ridiculous than creepy. Especially because her make up in that scene was just like normal ghost looking. It wasn’t creepy/gross looking like in the chase scenes. It just seemed so plain it was like, meh.

On a completely random note…. All I could think about in the following scene was, “Damn, Ananda….you need to clean up them brows bruh.”