5 Best & 5 Worst Asian Horror Movie Remakes Ever Made

2. Shutter

Japan and South Korea might be the more renowned producers of Asian horror movies but that’s not to say that other nations, Thailand included, don’t have a burgeoning horror scene too. One of Thailand’s best known offerings is Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom’s joint feature debut Shutter. an effectively chilling tale of rape-revenge in a supernatural context.

Curiously transferring the action not to America but to Japan – presumably due in part to director Masayuki Ochiai’s nationality and the fact that J-Horror tropes have proved popular and profitable with Western audiences – the Shutter remake stars Joshua Jackson as a photographer with a dark secret on assignment in Tokyo with his new bride. Interestingly it raked in an impressive profit of almost $48 million on a budget of just $8 million, but as we know good box office performance isn’t necessarily an indicator of quality.

If props must be given to the Shutter remake it’s in the movie’s staying mostly true to the original’s plot, but it lets itself down when it comes to characterisation. Whereas the Thai version’s male protagonist expresses some regret at his bystander role in a young woman’s rape and subsequent suicide, Jackson’s character Ben comes off as unlikeable, arrogant and a victim blamer.

Thankfully, apart from a middling remake of 13: Game of Death by Daniel Stamm in 2014, Hollywood has largely left Thai horrors alone since.