The Skeleton Key movie review

by Chris   ⋅   August 20, 2005   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

In a summer of duds and remakes, ranging from The Fantastic Four to Willy Wonka, the The Skeleton Key provides a welcome change.

Kate Hudson plays a twenty-five year old nurse, Caroline Hudson, hired to care for a bedridden man on an old Louisiana plantation. Plagued by guilt stemming from her absence at her father’s death she now helps others to ease their suffering. While such a stigma would lend itself to a brooding, down on herself heroine, Caroline proves to be quite stalwart, both keen and resourceful. Maybe it isn’t a coincidence her name, when shouted with a southern drawl, sounds not unlike that of another spook battler, Carol-Anne of Poltergeist. Caroline’s presence at the house is first met with trepidation, as the wife and caretaker (Gena Rowlands) frets Caroline will run away at the first opportunity…just like the five girls before her. That, and the fact she’s not from the south. Caroline does find acceptance from Luke, an Inheritance lawyer played by Peter Saarsgard, the creepiest looking man working in Hollywood today, who helps to allay the old woman’s fears. In time Caroline settles into her new job, but as luck would have it, things are not entirely copacetic at the old plantation, and Caroline finds herself involuntarily drawn into a world of folk mysticism (Hoodoo), the supernatural, and possible elder abuse.

Now, I’ve never really seen Kate Hudson in anything before. I avoided Almost Famous almost as fiercely as I do any other rock-and-roll related film (save for the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night), and I only made it through about 20 minutes of Le Divorce – the jacket promising bawdy fun, contained a film better suited for Lifetime television. But in The Skeleton Key I found her to be quite a capable actress. Her performance was believable and never rang a false note, whether slogging through a torrential downpour, confessing her fears to a close friend, or caring for the old man. The three mop haired teenagers in front of us, looking like rejects from the Monkees, seemed to enjoy her performance as well, though on an entirely different level, stating multiple times that they would definitely “do her”.

The Skeleton Key is the second horror film this year to be set in Louisiana, the first being gloriously depraved The House of Wax. Shots of the I-10 “bridgeway” along Lake Ponchartrain and the surrounding bayous, as well as those of the French quarter will be immediately recognizable to New Orleans veterans. The bayous of the south seem ready made for horror films, as hanging moss, creepy inlets, and derelict buildings are a stones throw in any direction. Nifty little shots through the film involving the inner working of ancient locking mechanisms and old rusty gears compliment those of the surrounding decay, and help to enforce the spooky nature of the flim.

Ehren Kreuger, who scribed the American adaptation of the Japanese theatrical version of the Ring, which also incidentally starred Watts of the aforementioned Le Divorce, has managed to craft a suspenseful, atmospheric horror tale that incorporates some long standing, and possibly well reasoned superstitions with the rich folklore of the South. Kreuger’s treatment of mirrors as portals is the best I’ve seen since Kevin Tenney’s Night of the Demons. And, while technically not Voodoo, the well researched Hoodoo element of the film would make it quite a nice chaser to Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow.

When one thinks of the south, the intriguing aspects that come to mind are a sense of mystery, romance, and deep rooted culture thick enough to inhale. The Skeleton Key takes full advantage of all of these elements, serving up a delightful dish of bayou horror — chicken feet and all.

About the Author:

Chris Nelson has been an avid film fan since the age of six. His all-time splatter favorites (”samurai” and otherwise) include Lady Snowblood, Evil Dead 2, Re-Animator and Razorback.

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