By Fred Topel | Images property of 20th Century Fox
Shutter is a remake of an Asian horror film about spirit photography. A newlywed couple finds ghostly images in all the pictures they take since their wedding. Moving to Japan for the groom's new photo gig only exacerbates matters. Aussie Rachael Taylor plays the bride, with an American accent.
Rachael Taylor Talks Shutter
"The choice by the producers and the writers was to make her American and I think it helps emphasis the solidarity of the two of them as a couple, which is so important," she said. "We really want to believe that they’re in this idyllic sort of blissfully married state at the start of the movie, and then of course it all goes awry."
The ghosts have personal ties to the groom, so that puts added strain on the new marriage. "Obviously you’re dealing with fairly complex human issues and the spectrum of emotions that you apply are potentially sometimes wider, like you’re dealing with the ideas of revenge and death and deceit and betrayal and all that stuff. I personally find that kind of pleasurable as an actor. It gives you more to play with and you’re exploring things that you probably wouldn’t get to explore on a daily basis, like you don’t get to explore the idea of the supernatural in your life, you hope, on a day-to-day basis."
Of course, there are also things that appear and disappear, keeping the characters guessing as to what is real. "In the case of this movie there was very, very little CGI which was great. Most of it was kept in the camera and we used real trickery rather than CGI stuff. There was a little bit of that, but in a way it’s kind of fun too. It’s like being six years old and playing make-believe again. You just have to use your imagination and go with it."
Shutter
Shutter
At first, Taylor's character is the only one who believes something spooky is going on. " I think we all sort of can relate to the experience of walking into like a house or a space and feeling like there’s something a bit off. Like there’s something creepy or sinister. Or, alternatively, a really warm feeling that you might get in a particular space, and sometimes other people feel it and sometimes they don’t. I think that’s just dependent on your degree of openness and how much you’re willing to believe."
Nothing spooky happened on Shutter, though the environment itself was pretty straightforwardly downbeat. "There were certainly places that we shot when we filmed this movie that were kind of creepy. We shot in an old, abandoned hospital and that was sort of distressing. We shot in old Japanese-style that were empty and had been empty for a number of years. So there were certainly creepy components of it."
Shutter opens to theaters March 21st.
For the trailer, poster and more movie info, go to the Shutter Movie Page.
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