CNS Movie Review: The Skeleton Key

The Skeleton Key

By Harry Forbes
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- During one particularly tense moment at a recent screening of "The Skeleton Key" (Universal), a child let out a good old-fashioned scream. (Bemused involvement describes the adults at that point.)

And indeed, this is a throwback to the kind of horror film they don't make much anymore. On the plus side, the violence is relatively tame by today's standards, there's only a smattering of bad language and sex is nonexistent.

On the other hand, the story line is often predictable, and Ehren Kruger's dialogue is more likely to elicit quiet chuckles of recognition than real thrills, but the story -- hoary though it is -- at least effectively holds your interest.

This is distinctly minor hokum about Caroline (Kate Hudson), a hospice care worker hired to take care of Ben (John Hurt), a dying man in a dilapidated Louisiana mansion. Ben can't speak, the apparent victim of a stroke. He has a dragon-lady of a Southern matriarch wife, Violet (Gena Rowlands), who watches him -- and his caregivers -- like a hawk, and administers his "medicine" herself. There's also a handsomely slick estate lawyer, Luke (Peter Sarsgaard), whose integrity is fishy from the get-go.

Caroline is given a skeleton key that opens all the doors in the house, except an attic door. She eventually manages to get in anyway, and discovers multiple indicators of hoodoo (that's American voodoo, if you didn't know), including 78 rpm records of curses and spells. This dusty room also contains all the mirrors of the house, which pointedly are not allowed to be on display. (The eponymous key, by the way, has little plot purpose, and merely serves to give the film a provocative title.)

One night, the wheelchair-bound Ben escapes out the window and onto the roof -- one of countless improbabilities -- while Caroline comes upon a sheet with the words "Help Me" written on it. When she attempts to show it to Luke the next day, the sheet is, of course, clean. Ben communicates several imploring looks to Caroline, who soon suspects he may need protection from Violet.

When Caroline confronts Violet, the latter fills her in on some of the sordid history of the house, such as the time a black domestic couple were lynched during a wild party when the drunken guests found them teaching magic and spells to the (eager-to-learn) children of the house. Caroline gleans that the mirrors are now banned because the ghosts of the murdered domestics can be seen in them! (But only if one "believes.")

Though -- in the time-honored way of all horror-film heroines -- Caroline doesn't "believe" in any of this herself, she visits the local voodoo lady who operates out of the back room of a coin laundry, and comes back equipped with all she needs to break the spell Ben may be under.

To say more would ruin what little genuine surprise there is, but there are plenty of shady doings and supernatural mumbo jumbo to come.

Director Iain Softley succeeds in whipping up an appropriately dank and creepy atmosphere, and the performances of Hudson (earnestly convincing), and Rowlands (having a field day with her "Grand Guignol" role) are very watchable. Much of the laughable dialogue is delivered with grave sincerity, as it has to be. Give the cast points for playing it so straight.

There's some violent scuffling as the film races to its conclusion, but it's the kind of action where characters can be hurled off a balcony, roll down a long flight of stairs and get right up again.

Still, this is best for adults, those in the mood for some mildly diverting nonsense. Provided they're willing to "believe."

The film contains some intense suspense, violence including a blurred recreation of a mob lynching, mild profanity, scattered crude language, recurring occult elements and brief partial nudity The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents are strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

END

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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