Shutter review

The remake-mill sputters once again with this US fudge of 2004’s Thai gut-churner about a jilted lover and a revenge scheme from beyond the grave. Its recipe for error includes a porcelain-skinned, black-haired ghost that ruins perfectly good photos, a weak-kneed jerk with a dubious past ( Joshua Jackson) and a crafty, furrow-browed blonde (Rachael Taylor), who Scooby-Doos her way around a hostile, dead-eyed version of Tokyo searching for clues. Shot with all the artistry of an ale advert by J-Horror ham ’n’ egger Masayuki Ochiai (Infection), Shutter resolutely fails to raise hair, shiver spines, cause any blood to crawl, or do anything other than mercilessly ape the Grudge remake. The film does wrap with a smirking Tales From The Crypt-esque ending, but the road to get there is paved with cliché, tedium and jet-black hairballs.