Shutter Shudders: The Remake

Now we ended up watching the English remake of Shutter on Saturday with the sis, her housemate and Chief. It's one thing that the four of us were horror movie buffs, but it was another thing when all other good movies at 9 something were sold out.

Interestingly, all of us have already watched the original Thai version, so this was more for us to compare between both films. Ah, heck it. We already know the Asian version of horror films beat the Western remakes hands down, but we just like to see just how well does a Western remake hold up to the original.

Our previous experiences with Western remakes? The Ring was good, Dark Water barely memorable, Ring 2 disappointing, the Grudge was also good, Grudge 2 not as nice, the Eye was quite okay. Right, that isn't quite a systemic grading system to go by, but suffice to say don't watch the bleh ones cukup.

The Chief have already experienced watching horror movies with us - we can find things funny and end up laughing throughout the movie, probably spoiling certain scenes for the Chief too. :P With our sis around, we have yet another reason to laugh. See, while sis enjoys horrors, at times she enjoys them by peering from the corner of her eye or through her fingers as she covers her face.

When she does this at home if we watch a DVD, we even tell her what's going on:

Janvier: Why the hospital corridor so empty wan? And see there's water on the floor everywhere!
Sis: Shit.
Janvier: Really, you can see what's going to happen already - he's walking on the wet patches.
-eerie hantu music plays-
Sis: Shit.
Janvier: Nah look he walking near that stupid window! Know already the ghost gonna push him down or something...
Sis: Shit. No need to tell me already!

Oh joy. :)

So. Shutter. English version. Don't worry, no spoilers but rather some comparisons. We wanted to know how faithful to the original it was (allowances made for bits of the Western setting), as we enjoyed the Thai one.

Well we did miss the beginning bit, probably some 7 minutes of the show but still got most of it, and while it remained quite faithful to the original, especially the spooks (yes, so it didn't spook us 'cos we knew what to expect already) there was only one bit of discontention for us: the original was a Thai horror flick. Why, for the remake, was the story based in Japan? Can't they give tribute to the film's origin?

Still, it was a pretty decent remake, ranking up there with The Ring and The Grudge. Watch it if you've never watched the original. Or better yet go get the original!