Shuttered

Lest it pass without notice, a very brief word on Shutter, which opened to poor reviews and a third-place weekend with about $10.5 million. Shutter, about a couple who are involved in an accident and subsequently suffer some haunting-related symptoms, was originally a smash-hit Thai flick in 2001, written and directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom. It was remade in Indian last year (as Sivi), and hits U.S. shores now with Japanese virus-horror specialist Masayuki Ochiai (Parasite Eve, Infection) in charge; the new production casts white kids (Joshua Jackson, Rachael Taylor) and sets the story in Japan, on the premise that one Far Eastern spirit-photo superstition is as good as another. The original was just okay, a lot of filler, a cute payoff but way too long to get to it.

Pisanthanakun and Wongpoom's next feature was Alone (Faet) in 2007. Alone, an entry in the conjoined-twin horror subgenre, won an audience award in Toronto. The Indian and U.S. remakes are in the works.

Not quite worthy of a separate post: the apparent abandonment of the Fatal Frame film. Frame, like Shutter, deals with the world of spirit photography: a young lady searching for her brother in a very haunted house has only a box camera (through which she can see apparitions) to dispel the haunters. The particularly scary 2001 video game (Project Zero in Australia and Europe) kicked off one of the more well-respected horror franchises, with the fourth installment in the works for the Nintendo Wii, looking at a summer release. The movie had been gossiped about as a Spielberg production, with various writers mentioned (Spielberg, John Rogers, Mark Brinker, Robert Fyvolent) but the last time I heard anything was a couple years ago now.