Shutter

Genre fans will recognize the influences, notably Peter Straub's Ghost Story (1981), and ten years worth of J-horror cliches.

Characters are introduced and seem shady and slimy from the get-go, all making for an entertaining flick.

The fluidity of sexual debauched twentysomethings co-mingling with the ghost of one their pasts works because there is something new about this remake.

A horror thriller spooky enough to inspire a few shivers up and down the spine.

One of the smart things about Shutter is the title. It sounds like "shudder" -- appropriate for a horror movie -- and it calls attention to a major theme, which is the camera as an instrument of aggression.

The story line never develops properly, and the supporting cast is wasted. That leaves this motion picture out of focus.

Despite just enough promise to make it passable, actual frights are slight, the plot is random and Shutter would best remain closed.

At this point, Americanized J-horror has become the Michael Myers of horror subgenres: Every time it's stabbed in the eye, hurled out a second-story window, and seemingly left for dead, it just keeps coming back for more.

Although the basic elements are familiar -- a vengeful ghost, attractive 20-somethings, exotic locales -- director Masayuki Ochiai and screenwriter Luke Dawson manage to combine the elements in novel and not uninteresting ways.

Seems like a technological regression after haunted-computer effort Pulse and haunted-videotape frightener The Ring -- both of which were, like Shutter, adapted from Asian horror movies.

Unfortunately you get what you pay for: lots of predictable look-behind-you apparitions and a discount cast trudging through a leaden story.

At times, the movie's banality works in its favor: just when you've grown accustomed to the seeming pointlessness of the spirit photo shtick, a connection is revealed that actually seems rather nifty.

The afterlife coughs up another screeching-mad, pasty chick in Shutter, the third Asian horror rehash in as many months.

Shutter at least took the time to populate Japan with plenty of hot pants and see-through tops.

The result is a film that neatly fits ever so nearly in a genre, even if it doesn't deliver the scary goods. Shutter is seriously short on shudders.

Shutter has a mystery that’s only slightly more intriguing than One Missed Call, which is probably just because Edward Burns isn’t around to generate unintentional laughs.

New rule: No more Asian-horror remakes until everyone outside of Asia has seen the originals. I'm not kidding.

Shutter glumly runs through the usual she’s-right-behind-you-turn-around set pieces.

This flashy shocker -- “inspired” or uninspired, as the case may be (and is -- by a Thai thiller some years back is arguably the most unimaginative genre film of the year. At least so far.

Shutter has several jumps, but it doesn't go too far into gore thanks to its PG-13 rating.

Shutter is a ghost story free of logic and spirit, representative of everything that's wrong with so much of current mainstream studio fare.