In North America, after getting married, the photographer Benjamin Shaw (Joshua Jackson) and his wife Jane (Rachel Taylor) travel to Japan for a job opportunity with Ben's friends Bruno (David Denman) and Adam (John Hensley). While driving on a lonely road in Japan during the night, they have a car accident with Jane hitting a girl first and crashing a tree. When they awake, the police do not find any body and Ben believes that Jane imagined the situation. Later when Ben reveals his latest pictures, he finds some mysterious shadows, while the couple is systematically haunted by the ghost of the girl. Jane investigates and finds that the victim was Ben's former shy and weird girlfriend Megumi Tanaka (Megumi Okina),who worked as translator for Ben. Later Jane discloses deep and hidden secrets about the relationship of Megumi, Ben and his friends Bruno and Adam.

The American version of "Shutter" is a mediocre remake of a great Asian horror movie. Actually it is ridiculous, with the author poorly using the same storyline and transforming a creepy and dark story in another Hollywoodian standard of silliness – shallow screenplay but with beautiful actresses, handsome lead actor and wonderful locations in Japan. If the viewer has never seen the original "Shutter" (2004) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0440803/),watch it instead. If the viewer has already seen the Thailand's movie, prefer watching it again. It will be better than wasting time watching this terrible remake. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Imagens do Além" ("Images from Beyond")

Note: On 25 February 2012, I saw this film again.

Before I reviewed this American remake of a highly regarded Thai horror film from 2004, I ordered a copy of the original to make a comparison.

Although the original is superior, the remake, to be fair smooths out some of the inconsistencies of the tale. This is not always a good thing as it's these little things that give the story a bit of character and individuality.

To be brief, the story involves the haunting of an American photographer and his new wife in Japan after hitting a young woman with their car on a lonely country road.

Most of the ghostly horror is more suggested than overt, with images appearing in photographs and just out of direct sight. Most of the set pieces from the original are here, but several of the most startling and effective moments of horror are missing. The unfortunate PG-13 rating keeps everything in check, so, while compelling, the horror is fairly muted. Another fault is the ghost lacks a bit of the personality the original has in spades. The final twist takes the story in a very different direction and is quite startling. But, like another reviewer wrote, leaves you feeling justice has been done.

Not a great film, but very watchable and satisfying.

This was a surprisingly good, old fashioned ghost story.

I haven't seen the original and I'm not a fanboy, so I didn't have any axes to grind going in. The cast is very good if somewhat underutilized, the photography and musical scoring are excellent, and there's a plot twist that caught me completely by surprise.

Watching the previews you'd think this was the one millionth Asian horror with a vengeful female spirit who has long black hair and dark circles under her eyes. There's more than that going on here.

And, without giving any plot points away, the final shot of the film is going to stay with me for a long, long time.

Sure, this isn't the most original piece of work ever. It's part of a long tradition of ghost stories. But the makers had the sense to keep it to 85 minutes so it's over before you really begin to think how familiar some of the material is.