It is just too bad that the film can’t hold up to the effort made by the studio for the Blu-ray release.
Audio:
The audio mix of "Shutter" is provided in the familiar English 5.1 DTS HD Master Lossless Audio that is familiar to Fox releases on Blu-ray. Spanish and French 4.1 Dolby Digital Surround mixes are thrown into the package as well as subtitles in English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin and Korean. "Shutter" is your typical horror film with lots of jump frights and ample opportunity for audio and harsh musical notes to help inject a little shock to the viewing experience. The musical score by Nathan Barr is similar to many other horror pictures, but it adds to the tension felt during the watching of the film and both audible scares and music sound quite good on the Blu-ray release. Dialogue is clear as well. While a large portion of the film takes part in the front channels, the rear surrounds are used nicely and I felt the audio mix was more than adequate.
Extras:
The wealth of bonus materials for "Shutter" begins with a Commentary by Production Executive Alex Sundell, Screenwriter Luke Dawson and Actress Rachael Taylor and introduces the viewer to the snazzy Polaroid-based menu system for bonus materials. It was a nice touch. I loved hearing Rachael Taylor´s Australian accent and this was easily my favorite part of the commentary track. The cast and crew mingle nicely through the commentary track and deliver a detailed and informative discussion about "Shutter" that looks at the decisions behind remaking the film just a few years after its initial release and throughout the creation of the picture. It also talked about spiritual photography and other ´frightful´ elements of the film. This is a commentary that only those that loved the film will want to sit through, but it is a decent commentary track.
A second menu Polaroid contains jumps to three vignettes. A Ghost in the Lens (8:09) discusses the film "Shutter" and the part of Japanese culture regarding spiritual photography. It features an expert on the paranormal belief and is worth visiting if you enjoyed the film or are curious about a notion where spirits can exist from not just the dead, but the living. The second short, A Cultural Divide: Shooting in Japan (9:21) continues where the first vignette stopped and focuses on the difficulties in shooting a film on foreign soil. I kept wanting to see Bill Murray show up, but he didn´t. The filmmakers had worked on "The Grudge" previously, so it wasn´t an entirely new experience. The final selection on this second menu page is The Director: Masayuki Ochai (9:32) focuses entirely on the director; if you couldn´t surmise that from the title. It was a nicely produced feature where questions are again shown on a graphic card and a translator helps the director out.
The third Polaroid-styled graphical overly has selections for two items. The first, A Conversation with Luke Dawson (5:33) features a few moments with the screenwriter of the film. I like Dawson, he seems like a relatively down-to-Earth guy and I enjoyed his skull desk decoration as well. Dawson isn´t the most exciting person to listen to, but he provides some nice information. The second item is A History of Spirit Photography (4:50) is an all-too-short look at the paranormal belief of spirit photography. Whether or not you believe in such ´science´ is irrelevant as this is an interesting little supplement and touches on a few aspects of spooks, ghosts and photographs. It fits in nicely with the feature film.
The next page of bonus features isn´t quite as interesting and contains two more items. The Create Your Own Phantom Photo (4:00) gives a faux vintage documentary on how to make your own spiritual photograph. I have Photoshop and I can tell you that this isn´t nearly as easy as they show even if you have Photoshop or another good photo editor and if you have the necessary graphical talents, then you could figure this out on your own. The Hunt for the Haunt: Tools and Tips for Ghost Haunting (2:29) is pretty much useless, it provides a few text-based screens that gives common sense tips on finding ghosts; such as looking into a graveyard at night and to use a Polaroid camera to capture them on film.
After these less than stellar supplements, there are more. Fox Movie Channel Presents In Character with Joshua Jackson (2:06) is incredibly short and almost as incredibly dull. For two whole minutes Joshua Jackson talks about his character to set up and advertise the film. This feature is a waste of time, but at least it isn´t much time to waste. The Japanese Spirit Photography Videos (17:16) is broken into three parts, but you can play them collectively. This was a three part series of news reports about spirit photography and one of the more interesting supplements; even if everybody seemed a little ´off.´ It made for good ghost stories. The third part with the dead girl was gruesome. The fifteen Alternate and Deleted Scenes (27:18) are truly only for those that enjoyed the film, but it is a nice collection of material.
Closing:
This Blu-ray release of "Shutter" contained a large number of supplements and was the ´unrated´ version of the film. With the theatrical release getting nearly universally panned by critics, it seems like an odd decision to put so many bonus materials onto the disc. It also doesn´t make much sense for the unrated version of the film to inject a few moments that were removed to speed up pacing; so the new unrated version is just a slower and blander version of the poorly received theatrical version. I scratch my head at some of the decisions, but I must applaud Fox for at least putting a lot of effort into this release. It´s a lousy film, but a decent little Blu-ray release that has a lot of supplements, good audio and a lot of marketing heart. It is just too bad that the film can´t hold up to the effort made by the studio for the Blu-ray release.
The audio mix of "Shutter" is provided in the familiar English 5.1 DTS HD Master Lossless Audio that is familiar to Fox releases on Blu-ray. Spanish and French 4.1 Dolby Digital Surround mixes are thrown into the package as well as subtitles in English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin and Korean. "Shutter" is your typical horror film with lots of jump frights and ample opportunity for audio and harsh musical notes to help inject a little shock to the viewing experience. The musical score by Nathan Barr is similar to many other horror pictures, but it adds to the tension felt during the watching of the film and both audible scares and music sound quite good on the Blu-ray release. Dialogue is clear as well. While a large portion of the film takes part in the front channels, the rear surrounds are used nicely and I felt the audio mix was more than adequate.
Extras:
The wealth of bonus materials for "Shutter" begins with a Commentary by Production Executive Alex Sundell, Screenwriter Luke Dawson and Actress Rachael Taylor and introduces the viewer to the snazzy Polaroid-based menu system for bonus materials. It was a nice touch. I loved hearing Rachael Taylor´s Australian accent and this was easily my favorite part of the commentary track. The cast and crew mingle nicely through the commentary track and deliver a detailed and informative discussion about "Shutter" that looks at the decisions behind remaking the film just a few years after its initial release and throughout the creation of the picture. It also talked about spiritual photography and other ´frightful´ elements of the film. This is a commentary that only those that loved the film will want to sit through, but it is a decent commentary track.
A second menu Polaroid contains jumps to three vignettes. A Ghost in the Lens (8:09) discusses the film "Shutter" and the part of Japanese culture regarding spiritual photography. It features an expert on the paranormal belief and is worth visiting if you enjoyed the film or are curious about a notion where spirits can exist from not just the dead, but the living. The second short, A Cultural Divide: Shooting in Japan (9:21) continues where the first vignette stopped and focuses on the difficulties in shooting a film on foreign soil. I kept wanting to see Bill Murray show up, but he didn´t. The filmmakers had worked on "The Grudge" previously, so it wasn´t an entirely new experience. The final selection on this second menu page is The Director: Masayuki Ochai (9:32) focuses entirely on the director; if you couldn´t surmise that from the title. It was a nicely produced feature where questions are again shown on a graphic card and a translator helps the director out.
The third Polaroid-styled graphical overly has selections for two items. The first, A Conversation with Luke Dawson (5:33) features a few moments with the screenwriter of the film. I like Dawson, he seems like a relatively down-to-Earth guy and I enjoyed his skull desk decoration as well. Dawson isn´t the most exciting person to listen to, but he provides some nice information. The second item is A History of Spirit Photography (4:50) is an all-too-short look at the paranormal belief of spirit photography. Whether or not you believe in such ´science´ is irrelevant as this is an interesting little supplement and touches on a few aspects of spooks, ghosts and photographs. It fits in nicely with the feature film.
The next page of bonus features isn´t quite as interesting and contains two more items. The Create Your Own Phantom Photo (4:00) gives a faux vintage documentary on how to make your own spiritual photograph. I have Photoshop and I can tell you that this isn´t nearly as easy as they show even if you have Photoshop or another good photo editor and if you have the necessary graphical talents, then you could figure this out on your own. The Hunt for the Haunt: Tools and Tips for Ghost Haunting (2:29) is pretty much useless, it provides a few text-based screens that gives common sense tips on finding ghosts; such as looking into a graveyard at night and to use a Polaroid camera to capture them on film.
After these less than stellar supplements, there are more. Fox Movie Channel Presents In Character with Joshua Jackson (2:06) is incredibly short and almost as incredibly dull. For two whole minutes Joshua Jackson talks about his character to set up and advertise the film. This feature is a waste of time, but at least it isn´t much time to waste. The Japanese Spirit Photography Videos (17:16) is broken into three parts, but you can play them collectively. This was a three part series of news reports about spirit photography and one of the more interesting supplements; even if everybody seemed a little ´off.´ It made for good ghost stories. The third part with the dead girl was gruesome. The fifteen Alternate and Deleted Scenes (27:18) are truly only for those that enjoyed the film, but it is a nice collection of material.
Closing:
This Blu-ray release of "Shutter" contained a large number of supplements and was the ´unrated´ version of the film. With the theatrical release getting nearly universally panned by critics, it seems like an odd decision to put so many bonus materials onto the disc. It also doesn´t make much sense for the unrated version of the film to inject a few moments that were removed to speed up pacing; so the new unrated version is just a slower and blander version of the poorly received theatrical version. I scratch my head at some of the decisions, but I must applaud Fox for at least putting a lot of effort into this release. It´s a lousy film, but a decent little Blu-ray release that has a lot of supplements, good audio and a lot of marketing heart. It is just too bad that the film can´t hold up to the effort made by the studio for the Blu-ray release.
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[release]24109[/release]