Is there no end to the mind-boggling things we can learn from movies? For example, Shutter teaches us that ghosts sometimes like to hang out in photographs. So, dear reader, be sure to check your photos for telltale white blotches, which might be spirits out to cause trouble for you or your loved ones. That’s what happens to newlyweds Ben and Jane Shaw, the main characters in Shutter, who suffer the haunting of such a ghostly image.

Ben (Joshua Jackson), a professional photographer on an important fashion assignment in Tokyo, faces more than supernatural problems as a result of his ruined pictures. Wanting to stand by her man, Jane (Rachael Taylor), who feels guilty because she thinks the ghost represents a woman she accidentally ran over, decides to investigate the situation.

Who is the woman in the photos?

What does she want from Ben and Jane?

How is she involved with them?

Unfortunately, what Jane discovers will come as no surprise to most viewers, for Shutter is very predictable -- especially after the Shaw wedding pictures are introduced into the story.

Listed on the Internet Movie Data Base as a horror/mystery/thriller, this movie falls short in each of those categories. Nothing believably horrifying or mysterious happens, and the only thrills come from watching handsome Joshua Jackson (Aurora Borealis) in a couple of appealing close-ups. While Jackson and the lovely Taylor (Transformers) are talented actors, they can't save this dreary remake of the 2004 Thai film (also titled Shutter).  I felt no terror or fear during the movie -- and, worse, no concern for the people in jeopardy.  

Adding annoyance on top of everything else wrong with Shutter, attempts to create the right atmosphere with fuzzy, murky cinematography backfire, making it difficult to see clearly what’s going on -- even in many of the scenes shot in broad daylight. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing after all. There’s probably not much to see here anyway.  (Capsule review)

(Released by 20th Century Fox and rated “PG-13” for terror, disturbing images, sexual content and language.)