The Skeleton Key
‘The Skeleton Key’ plays with an entire nursery of red herrings. The film’s title gives the impression of a Richard Laymon novel; a house full of secrets that can only be unlocked with one single, master key. But the secrets should have remained concealed forever, imprisoned within those four, protective walls. Yet, as you will discover through the film, evil walks far away from locked doors....
‘The Skeleton Key’ plays with an entire nursery of red herrings. The film’s title gives the impression of a Richard Laymon novel; a house full of secrets that can only be unlocked with one single, master key. But the secrets should have remained concealed forever, imprisoned within those four, protective walls. Yet, as you will discover through the film, evil walks far away from locked doors. The film drags its feet during its beginning and ennui does begin to set in sooner rather than later as somewhat stereotypical “Southerners” romp, rampage and revel in the delights and smells of New Orleans. Indeed, this film is unintentionally “spooky” in the fact that it so lavishly depicts a setting now torn apart and virtually destroyed by hurricane force winds and rising waters.
Kate Hudson plays Caroline, a young care-worker brought in by a charismatic lawyer to help look after a dying man. His eccentric wife already looks after the dying man and the pair have chosen to live out the remainder of their days in an old, eerie mansion in the depths of the American south. How will Caroline fit into such a family? Will the family like her and accept her as one of her own? Will Caroline fall in love with the family and the house? Will she ever leave? For there are rumours of ghosts and strange rituals being practiced amongst the everglades.
Kate Hudson is the perfect person to play Caroline in this movie. Despite appearances in nonsense romantic comedies, she’s a relatively unknown actress. The audience can believe she is actually a person experiencing the weird events in the American Deep South. Anyone else would simply appear as a Hollywood actress pretending to be scared. We care about what happens to Caroline because she introduces us to the weird goings on in and outside of the house and we identify with her concerns because she resembles an ordinary person. There is a slight problem with the direction. Caroline is shown in one part of the film to be fiercely intelligent. She is then shown, later on in the movie, to be quick suggestible and- quite frankly- dumb. In one half of the film, Caroline investigates what is going on around her and discovers terrifying truths before the film’s audience even understand what is going on. In the remainder of the film, Caroline is so late with her comprehension of what is really going on that the film’s audience might very well be rude enough to slow-hand-clap the moment of her epiphany.
John Hurt is superb as the mysterious “Ben” who is on the verge of making an exit from the world. Gena Rowlands is also superb as the eccentric wife of Ben who just might be a hell of a lot more than she seems. “Never trust old people,” is a message that echoes so much throughout the film that it reverberates in abundance. The film is the first horror film in years to have mastered suspense and- though the first half of the film is slow and boring- the remainder saves the day as the action changes gear and the cruelty of the town’s folk and their “secret magic” suddenly comes to the forefront of the motion picture.
The deep-rooted connections with horrific cruelty and with one another amongst the townsfolk echo ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and other films where the locals really don’t like new arrivals in their territory. Despite meticulous attention to detail, there are a number of plot holes in the film and a number of characters are reduced into cameo roles after first being illustrated as pivotal players in the piece. The magical practice of Hoodoo is as much a star in this film as the actors. I am- personally- getting a tad sick and tired of this “it can’t hurt you if you don’t believe in it” response to ancient magic and customs from Hollywood motion pictures but ‘The Skeleton Key’ does manage to make the adherence to this magical practice by the townsfolk into one of the scariest things on record.
The twist at the end does make the film take on a different light and lines said at the beginning which seemed harmless enough, suddenly take on a wicked, sinister motif in the mind of the viewer. There are an abundance of special features on the DVD release. The Making-Of feature is too short, the audio commentaries distract from the intricate nature of the film’s plot, Kate Hudson’s “Ghost Story” is stupid, John Hurt’s ‘Ghost Story’ is read like he’s still reading those “Survive Aids” public information adverts. The location feature is enthralling, the casting feature is boring to the point of being silly, the explanations of Voodoo and Hoodoo are needed but- again- are too short and the Gena’s love spell is one of the most bizarre inclusions on any DVD on release. Mind, the trailers for forthcoming films are brilliant. I really want to see King Kong.
Apologies for the pun, but unlock The Skeleton Key now on DVD.
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