"Photography does not produce reality. It depends on how the image is framed. What is revealed, What is concealed. Your perspective is critical." The point made by Jane's professor in 2004's Shutter is one that intertwines into the framework of this film and videogame Fatal Frame: Mask of The Lunar Eclipse.

Understanding the secrets buried within the lives of these characters becomes vital to the essence of a haunted location, its terrible pasts, and the viewer's capacity to experience these memories via a camera lens. While these mysteries are crucial to unraveling these truths, sometimes some skeletons are best left buried.

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What is Fatal Frame: Mask of The Lunar Eclipse about?

Fatal Frame-Mask of The Lunar Eclipse

Within the world of Fatal Frame, ghosts are the epitome of Japanese horror and have a significant role to play as well as the fear of these supernatural entities, taking a unique form and overarching message. The intertwined plotlines of Fatal Frame: Mask of the Moon Eclipse come together to reveal the truth behind a recent spate of tragic fatalities on barren Rougetsu Island. Three of the characters had previously resided on this odd island when they were young, and they returned after the numerous fatalities forced them to confront their pasts, as was discovered throughout the investigations.

Throughout the journey, Detective Choshiro Kirishima, who had previously visited the island to look into the kidnappings of five young girls, regrettably discovers that he has returned to solve yet another eerie murder mystery that has left a trail of restless ghosts. Choshiro is motivated to assist Misaki and Madoka in solving the mystery surrounding the murders of their friends. Possessing the abilities of Spirit Stone Flashlight and the Camera Obscura with the ability to discern ghostly shadows, all of them attempt to uncover the unimaginable horrors concealed beneath their forgotten memories, Ruka also decides to accompany them to the island.

What is Shutter about?

Shutter 2004-1

Within the world of Fatal Frame, there are many connections between its dynamic characters, ghosts, and the vengeful spirit that Tun and Jane battle against in Wongpoom and Pisanthanakun's 2004 Thai horror classic, Shutter, with twists and turns genuinely provoking one of the most unnerving endings within the horror genre to date. Like most experiences in survival horror, there are two paths one can take from such a journey. What is present, and if one dares to dig for more, the information one finds is more unsettling than the truth that is left buried.

A happy couple, photographer Tun and Jane are at the center of the film Shutter. But, after a wedding celebration, their lives are turned upside down when they hit a little girl on the road. Bleeding and lying in the road that night, she is left alone and abandoned after a drunk Tun orders Jane to turn away from the horrific spectacle. Following the event, odd anomalies emerge in Tun's images, and the pair begins to experience unusual happenings. The accident has prompted justice and punishment from beyond the grave, as the story builds on revealing the sadistic truth behind the girl's death.

While a slow burner, Shutter's compelling narrative and dynamic characters are what set it apart from others within its genre. Tun comes off as generally sweet, but as the story progresses, one sees he is morally questionable. It is Tun's character, as well as his seemingly perfect and budding romance with Jane that contributes to giving his character a sympathetic lead. However, it turns out to be a brilliant ploy of misdirection on Shutter's part.

While Shutter draws on Japanese horror's distinctive thematic conventions, it also capsizes them throughout the film. This unusual sequence of circumstances inspires the evil spirit to not only inflict misery and suffering on Tun and Jane but also to get revenge on his college mates shown earlier in the film at the wedding celebration, who subsequently commits suicide. Tun's "nice guy" persona is fraying as he grieves for his departed buddies. Tun has long-buried secrets that date back to his undergraduate days. Secrets concerning not only his buddies but also the girl they encountered on the road, and all of them have the potential to damage, not just him but also his relationship.

From its inventive scares that drive the plot forward, the clever use of photography, and its unequaled twist at the end of the film, Wongpoom and Pisanthanakun clearly transcend not only cultural horror boundaries but supernatural horror as a whole. Shutter is an engrossing ghostly tale of a woman scorned, the fine line between revenge and justice, and how long the truth about someone's past can stay hidden before it comes to the surface. Shutter addresses all of these concepts in a beautifully unique way and all behind the work of a camera lens.

How are Shutter and Fatal Frame: Mask of The Lunar Eclipse similar?

Fatal Frame-shutter 2004-2

"Why would the dead return to the living without a message to convey?" The paranormal investigator makes this case to Tun and Jane as well as everybody in the audience who has ever seen a ghost in person. There is a belief that spiritual forces enter the 3D world in search of restitution, whether one experiences them as mere shadows or an apparition in a photograph. A common misconception is that by seeking justice or paying tribute to the deceased, one is somehow absolving themselves of any pain one may have endured while they were alive. In both cases, Shutter and Fatal Frame: Mask of The Lunar Eclipse try to "right" the wrongs of the past. Whether it's by searching for the grisly truth behind the murders of Ruka, Misaki, and Madoka's friends or the equally disturbing veracity of Natre's death in Shutter, each party relentlessly tries to correct the horrible things that have happened to the people they have cared about deeply.

Both Fatal Frame: Mask of the Moon Eclipse and Shutter, in their own distinct and profound ways, brilliantly connect with the power of silence. Yo Haibara is responsible for the kidnapping, slaying, and loss of memory of five girls in Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. He has denied them access to what occurred to them ten years ago during the Rogetsu Kagura through memory loss and murder. Similarly, in Shudder, Tun willfully ignores the wrongdoings he committed during his college days. At a time when popularity meant more to him than honesty and the love he had for Natre, he was disturbingly complacent in a lot of the behavior that transpired with Natre, behavior that would eventually lead to her death. While neither party planned for things to turn out the way they did, they were both responsible for endangering and destroying the lives of others and then preventing them from remembering or seeking justice for what was done in the past.

Throughout Shutter and Fatal Frame: Mask of the Moon Eclipse, both highlight cameras and images, and each is just as crucial in uncovering the specifics of each scenario, each of which is just as terrifying and unsettling. The camera is a weapon in both films. It is employed to drive away spirits in Fatal Frame: Mask of the Moon Eclipse, but in Shudder, it is meant to capture painful or traumatic experiences. The pictures hone in on the audience within the closing moments, practically smothering them within the negative bounds of the glossy surface on which these awful events transpired.

Both Shudder and Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse presents a heartbreaking backstage story of torture and abuse, with the spectator deciding if justice can prevail, even for those who have been silenced. Both Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse and Shutter utilize intriguing themes of outlining such notions that genuinely brim with dread and play on one's mental state that nicely make up two visually captivating evocative experiences.

Where to Watch Shutter

Shutter, at least the original, is only available to rent, buy or stream with ads on Vudu. There is an American remake that is more widely available. That version can be streamed on HBO Max or rented on Apple, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu, the Microsoft Store, Directv, AMC On Demand, and Redbox.

More: Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse Review