Director: Masayuki Ochiai, 15, 85min

Stars: Megumi Okina, Joshua Jackson, Rachael Taylor

On general release

Though it bears all the watermarks of a hokey American remake of a subtler Japanese ghost story, this is a stranger beast - an American film directed by a Japanese horror specialist that is based on a Thai hit from 2004.

Rather than show up on video, Shutter's lank-haired, grudge-holding female spook Megumi (Okina) appears mostly as a mysterious fogging on photographs, though she occasionally pops up as a reflection or a sullen loiterer. Megumi persecutes a photographer, Ben (Jackson), and his new blonde wife, Jane (Taylor), after they seem to run her over while on a honeymoon drive. Jane then feels compelled to investigate the incidents that are making her miserable and wrecking her husband's employment prospects.

The characters are sleekly unlikeable even before the revelation of the spectre's tragic backstory, and all the shock, scare and creep-out tactics have been done dozens of times. Given how similar it is to many other films, a better title would have been Snap.

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