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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 11.25%
Worth A Look: 20%
Average: 23.75%
Pretty Bad: 33.75%
Total Crap: 11.25%
7 reviews, 38 user ratings
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| Skeleton Key, The |
by Brian McKay
"well, at least it's not another crappy Kate Hudson romantic comedy"
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switching gears from the slew of critically abhorred romantic comedies she's appeared in since her star-making turn in ALMOST FAMOUS, Kate Hudson tries her hand at the horror scene in THE SKELETON KEY. But while the film is brimming with lush southern Gothic ambiance and competent performances, it fails to be truly gripping or scary or even jolt-inducing on any level.Hudson plays Caroline Ellis, a nurse working in a Louisiana old folks home who has grown increasingly embittered over the way that her patients are merely being warehoused so that they can die. When her latest patient passes away, and his family refuses to even come by and pick up his belongings, she decides to quit the home and take a job as an assisted living nurse for an old couple who live in a run-down antebellum mansion.
The couple are Violet (played excellently by Gena Rowlands) and Ben (John Hurt, earning his easiest paycheck ever as a wheelchair-bound mute). Since Ben is unable to speak or walk after a recent stroke, Violet needs someone to help her take care of him. But from the moment that Caroline arrives to interview for the job, we see plenty of clues that indicate that something just ain't right - like the fact that all the mirrors have been taken down from the walls, or that the previous nurses that were hired all left within a week. Undaunted by such things, Caroline wants the job anyway. Although Violet doesn't care for her much at first, she hires Caroline after a little nudging from her estate lawyer, Luke (Peter Sarsgaard), a dashing young southern gentleman who naturally forms an instant rapport with the attractive Caroline.
Upon moving in, Caroline recieves a skeleton key from Violet which is supposed to open every door in the house. While Caroline's days are spent feeding and bathing Ben, Violet putters around in the garden and says things like "Child, will you do me a blessing and fetch me a glass of Sweet Tea?". But when Caroline goes to the attic to fetch something for Violet, she discovers a mysteriously locked door that the key won't open. So, like any snooping white girl in a haunted house would do, she breaks into the room and is surprised to find a bunch of creepy-looking voodoo shit inside. Further snooping reveals that the house was once cared for by a pair of Black servants named Papa Justify (Ronald McCall) and Mama Cecile (Jeryl Prescott), who were devout practitioners of Voodoo. Now, their ghosts appear to be haunting the creepy old house - or are they?
From a storytelling standpoint, THE SKELETON KEY unfolds in a fairly straightforward paint-by-numbers manner. Caroline uncovers more clues, despite resistance from the increasingly hostile and suspect Violet, and there are twists upon twists - most of which are rather predictable, but one or two of which will pleasantly blindside the average viewer. But sadly, this thriller never thrills, and its lush atmosphere is a thin smokescreen to hide the fact that its formulaic underpinnings prevent it from approaching anything that is truly scary or unsettling.Although it could be a bit of fun to watch on a rainy night, THE SKELETON KEY is nothing for horror fans to get excited about. More than anything, it seems like a vehicle for Hudson to break away from the Rom-Com scene and broaden her horizons, but in that respect it's a rather limited form of success to step up from awfulness to mediocrity.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=12711&reviewer=258
originally posted: 08/21/05 07:24:29
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USA
12-Aug-2005 (PG-13)
DVD: 15-Nov-2005
UK
N/A
Australia
18-Aug-2005
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