Blu-ray Disc Review |
SHUTTERUNRATEDDistributed by: 20th Century Fox Film Year: 2008 Film Length: 89 minutes Genre: Horror/Thriller Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Colour/B&W: Colour BD Specifications: Resolution: 1080/24p Video Codec: AVC @ 34MBPS Disc Size: BD-50 Audio: English DTS 5.1 HD Master Audio Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Subtitles: English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean Film Rating: Unrated
Release Date: July 15, 2008. Rating: / Scare Factor: Starring: Joshua Jackson (Benjamin Shaw), Rachael Taylor (Jane Shaw), Megumi Okina (Megumi Tanaka), David Denman (Bruno), John Hensley (Adam), Maya Hazen (Seiko) Screenplay by: Luke Dawson Directed by: Masayuki Ochiai The most terrifying images are the ones that are real. How about a ghost story for the evening? A remake of a Thai film, Shutter follows the lives of a newlywed couple, Ben and Jane, who move to Japan on their honeymoon. But the honeymoon is over very quick for two reasons: 1) they are involved in a tragic accident on a desolate road on the way to their cabin 2) photographer-husband Ben immediately starts photo sessions for the job he landed in Japan. Strange occurrences begin to happen since the accident. Jane is having difficulties as a foreigner adapting to the new land. She spends most of her days alone while her husband is taking pictures. It seems she also has a bit of jeolousy around him since most of his associates are female. But what is beyond strange is that she’s constantly noticing mysterious ‘flares’ in photos of herself, covering her image. Ben is also noticing this with his professional photos, thinking that his camera must have been damaged in the accident. Tension builds as he feels his job could result in complete failure. Mysterious events begin to unfold: hallucinations, maybe…but definitely unexplainable. Could it be the work of a spirit? Japanese legend says it is true. But what does it want? Who is it trying to reach? Perhaps solving this mystery isn’t in the best interest for the couple… The film has a few creepy parts, but not creepy enough for my tastes. The film seems to target teenagers as the main audience, maybe not intentionally, but it’s the sort of film that people of that age will find more entertaining and frightening. For those of you looking for something more complex and deeper storytelling, you are probably best to pass over this film. But for a night of pure popcorn fun, this film packs the entertainment. Fox still insists on forcing trailers when the disc is inserted. Oddly, the three trailers aren't including in a submenu. No Shutter theatrical trailers is on this disc either.VIDEO QUALITY / Presented in its theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 (the black bars are evenly split between top and bottom), the image is sure to please even the pickiest of HD viewers. The opening credits literally hovers over the filmed image showing off the excellent image depth delivered. This film has many shots of foreground and background images coming into focus and the perception of depth between these images is excellent. The many extreme close ups reveal facial pores, hairs, and the meticulously applied make-up. Many shots in Shutter will make good HD reference material. Colours look very natural in most scenes; the exception being in some of Ben’s photography shoots or such as in Chapter 6, when Jane walks around the streets in Japan, the colours appear to be drawn out more and then artificially manipulated for that pastel look. This visual interpretation of a scene is all the rage these days, and while not my favourite, does deliver a different artistic impression of a scene. Image contrast is very good showing deep blacks with excellent shadow detail and bright whites. Occasionally, the whites appear too clipped for my tastes, but that generally happens during the ‘artsy’ pastel scenes. This is simply an artistic decision. Compression artefacts and edge enhancement are undetectable.AUDIO QUALITY / Complementing the video is a well designed audio soundtrack. It makes use of all 5.1 channels throughout the film and quite aggressively too. Since this is a ghost story, it only makes sense to have swirling and muffled screaming voices quietly shifting all around the viewer, panning the full 360-degree soundscape with no particular direction in movement. The eerie sounds are there – just to haunt you. Deep bass pulsates with music in the center channel and sound effects in all other channels so the use of full-range speakers are recommended for the best experience. The subwoofer takes on a lot of dedicated information of its own if no bass management is applied, and the bass is much more intense, shooting low bass information through the room. Dialogue is surprisingly good with a mixture of lines from location shooting and ADR. Processing of dialogue to mimic room ambience has been done tastefully and effectively so the soundtrack is more believable when we see the actor standing in a room. Believable reflections and absorptions are present. The only inconsistency with the dialogue is in Chapter 11, when Ben and Jane see Mr. Murase to interpret the spirit photos, Ben’s dialogue sounds sibilant and Mr Murase’s voice fades quiet and then comes back loud. It’s as mysterious as the yurei..TACTILE FUN!! / TRANSDUCER ON/OFF?: ON You’ll want to keep your bass shaker activated for this one. Your butt will get a good shakin’ at just the right moments in this film – when things jump out at you, there’s gotta be that thump too! The movement makes you feel like you aren’t alone in the room…SPECIAL FEATURES / In the era of HD, and supposedly HD produced special features, I’m at a loss to explain why Fox doesn’t always show their special features in HD. It’s likely that some material is SD 1.78:1, and some is SD 4:3. But when every feature on this disc is presented in SD 1.78:1 and NOT enhanced for widescreen televisions, it’s a disappointment. That is how all features are presented on this disc (MPEG-2 encode). The only logic I can see to this is that the content wasn’t widescreen to begin with and each featurette had 1.78:1 bars put on the top and bottom for artistic intent. But, that’s highly unlikely, and even the deleted/alternate scenes are even letterboxed 4:3 SD. Fox, what’s the logic for this on Blu-ray? Audio Commentary - by Production Executive Alex Sundell, Screenwriter Luke Dawson, and Actress Rachel Taylor. All three of them are in the discussion at the same time and the ladies seem to take over most of the time. Its content is exactly what you’d expect of it: production, experiences on set, and writing - by each of the guest’s specialties. Most featurettes are edited pieces of discussions with Joshua Jackson, the director, writer, Rachel Taylor, and others who worked with the film. Clips of the film are edited in to support their statements. What differs is the subject matter, which is listed below: A Ghost in the Lens (8:09) – a discussion about the Japanese legend of the yurei, or as we know it, the dead, and their motives/reasons for staying in the living world before their souls are set free. A Cultural Divide (9:21) – how the crew found working in Japan to be a treat as well as working with a Japanese director through a translator. The Director (9:32) – to think he hates ghosts…he made a ghost movie! Ochiai discusses his respect for the original film and his decisions while remaking it. A discussion of spirit photography is also here. Conversation with Luke Dawson (5:33) – on the screenplay. History of Spirit Photography (4:50) - with original photos, this quick featurette delivers a bit of history behind spirit photography in the early days from the real to the hoax…and who to believe. It’s very interesting and my favourite featurette on the disc. Create your Own Phantom Photo (4:00) – how to use a photo manipulation program on a basic Mac to create your own ghostly pictures. The Hunt for the Haunt (2:29) – tips for finding ghosts. Be patient, you might just find one (what would you do if you did, and then it face screamed at you without flesh and showed all bone?) Fox Movie Channel Presents: in character with Joshua Jackson (2:06) – interview with Joshua Jackson for this promo piece. Japanese Spirit Photography Videos (17:16) – I’m not sure what the source is of this, where it came from, or why it was selected for this BD/DVD, but it appears to be a short Japanese horror flick about spirit photography. Shot with home video cameras and intended to look like “on location” news of a place where people went missing, it’s a strange mish-mash of work, a bit unfocussed, like it was made by high school kids. It’s probably the intention, but I didn’t really understand how the last part ties together with the first two. There are three videos here and you can access all three independently or as “play all”. Part 1: The Host Camera, Part 2: The Red Thing, and Part 3: Finally Free are it’s titles, and the latter features a decaying body on a table and after 72 hours people drill into the brain and set the ghost free…? Strange… There are over 27 minutes of deleted and alternate scenes. Of the 15 in total, there are only a few that add a bit of insight to the story, especially that around Megumi’s death. It’s quite an extended sequence with new scenes entirely and with new characters. Keeping it in would have slowed the pace of the film down since it’s near the end, and a successful film needs to keep the pace moving, even if it’s at the sacrifice of character development. Hmmm…too bad this never came to light somewhere in the middle of the film…but then it would have thrown off the film’s secret and climax too. Ahhh…the joys of editing. Many other deleted scenes are of Jane’s alienation in Japan. They were cut because we get the point very early in the film.IN THE END...Shutter is an entertaining film that tries to instil fear in the viewer rather than using gore. While this release is an “unrated” edition, I’m not sure what could have been cut from the theatrical release. It’s probably not much because to be classified as unrated, I believe the film doesn’t have to be submitted to the ratings board with the new edits. For anyone looking for lots of gore, you will be disappointed. This isn’t a film for that. The BD looks excellent and the soundtrack supports the haunting story. It’s a good disc to enjoy for high definition audio and video. Michael Osadciw July 11, 2008.Review System
