Shutter (2004)

I recently came across this movie, and, although I had low expectations, have become obsessed with it. I do tend to lean towards foreign horror films because they lack that ever so tacky Hollywood style of American horror. They tend to be more creepy, and this movie is creepy.

It centers on a young Thai couple who, on their way home from a night of drinking, accidentally hit a female pedestrian. Of course, they don't check to see if she's okay, they just drive off. A few days later, what seems to be the ghost of the unknown pedestrian, begins to haunt them. The movie goes off into two different directions as the guy, Tun (Ananda Everingham), a professional photographer, tries to deny that anything is going on, and Jane (Natthaweeranuch Thongmee), unwilling to ignore the events, tries to figure out what is happening and, more importantly, why.

Things take a turn when Jane and Tun go back to the site of the accident to find construction workers fixing the billboard they had crashed into just after hitting the girl; they are told by a construction worker that there had been no fatalities that night. No one had been hit. Unable to find any record of a woman being admitted into a hospital that night, or any deaths related to a car crash, Jane and Tun's situation becomes even more ominous.

The combination of horror and mystery, is phenomenal, but what I loved most about this movie, was the brilliance behind the production. Every little thing is done on purpose - as opposed to, say, the Grudge where they flash random scary images that have nothing to do with the plot at all. You have to watch the movie again and again, just to pick up on the subtleties that hold the plot together.

Shutter envelopes you in the world of the movie; holding you captive to the very end, when that final image, that final oh-my-god moment, reaches into your chest and freezes your heart. This film is brilliant.