Shutter MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +1 Content: -4

Joshua Jackson, Rachel Taylor, David Denman, John Hensley. Thriller.

FILM SYNOPSIS: A newly married photographer keeps taking pictures and whats that in the background a wispy specter. Thats right, its the ghost of a missing Asian woman, and shes ticked! The loving couple cant figure out why they are being haunted by this dead chick. Ah, but maybe the husband really knows.

PREVIEW REVIEW: In comedy, a flatulence joke is the easiest and laziest way to get a laugh. In horror films, its the jolting musical sting. And this horror movie is full of jolting musical stings. Our heroine slowly backs away from what she thinks is a threat only to bump into another threat. Over and over they do this. And each time, it is punctuated by an orchestras string section.

Its an overly familiar horror theme a dead girl, usually Asian, comes back to take revenge on the innocent as well as the guilty. As for the possibility of spooks visiting us, it is also an overused device in horror flicks. I suppose the theme of ghosts appearing does serve one purpose. It can remind us that there is an afterlife and that man is not just a physical and mental being but a spiritual one, as well. If you think youre going to get any scriptural teaching from this thriller, however, you are mistaken. Its not a horrible movie, but its not very creative and certainly not spiritually uplifting.

DVD alternative: For a romantic comedy/drama, try The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. A gothic romance without promiscuity, starring Rex Harrison, Gene Tierney and George Sanders. No, I don't believe in ghosts (angels and demons, yes), but the serene love affair is difficult to resist. It contains, you should excuse the expression, a haunting score by Bernard Herrmann.

Preview Reviewer: Phil Boatwright
Distributor: 20th Century Fox