'After Everything I've Seen ...': Rewatching Shutter Island as a Knowing Audience

This paper exposes the false assumptions the impulse to announce spoilers suggests about movies. Specifically, the paper contends that the idea of spoiler misconstrues movie magic by locating the pleasure of a movie in sudden surprises and unexpected twists rather than the ongoing engagement the best films proffer. Such an impression insinuates that viewers can only experience even the best films a limited number of times. Films geared toward a big reveal-films like Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010)-seem especially suited to such a belief. Scorsese can only shock his audiences once and only then if his film's secret is properly guarded. Following this view, Scorsese's project has almost nothing to grant those who know the text the film adapts, Dennis Lehane's (2003) novel by the same name. Adaptation scholars know better. Those who accept Linda Hutcheon's (2013) notion of the 'knowing' audience would argue that knowledge of Lehane's novel carries as many rewards as forfeitures. The present paper explores the extent to which re-watching rewards spectators who participate in the re-construction such a film invites. The paper ultimately evaluates the ways in which Scorsese's Shutter Island indulges spectators long after its secret has been divulged.