Some doors shouldn't be opened.... (The Skeleton Key (DVD))

Member Name: sparkymarky1973

Product:	The Skeleton Key (DVD)
Date:	30/07/09 (17 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A clever chilling climax that is really quite nasty...

Disadvantages: The film's strongest moments come right at the very end

This was another film I caught on TV the other night and another I had been wanting to watch for ages. We saw it advertised at the cinema yonks ago and the trailer really caught mine and my wife's interest so when we saw it in the T.V listings, we decided to make a point to try and watch it together....

Set in the already creepy state of Louisiana, home to the bayou and all kinds of voodoo mischief if we are lead to believe what we are told, the film follows Caroline Ellis, a carer, who comes to the home of Violet Devereaux to help look after her husband Ben who is the victim of a stroke. Recruited by a local lawyer who is in the process of rewriting the family wills, Caroline recieves an initially cold reception but, the longer she works in the house, the more she begins to realise that something very strange is going on and that there are some secrets that Violet would rather keep to herself. Ben seems very disturbed, almost frightened, and, as Caroline investigates, she begins to suspect that Violet has been performing some kind of hoodoo ritual and may well even have put a curse on her husband. Add to this a secret room in the attic full of mysterious dolls and magical paranaphelia and the end result is a half-decent thriller whose only fault is that it's pay-off doesn't really come until the closing scenes. Much like Nicole Kidman's The Others or Bruce Willis' Sixth Sense, this is a film that is all about the surprise ending and the journey that takes you there can sometimes feel a little...uninspiring! In fact, my main bugbear was that this felt too much at times to me like one of those old ITV Mystery, Drama and Suspense T.V movies from the eighties or an extended version of Alfred Hitchcock Presents or even The Twilight Zone! It is reasonably chilling but only when you take the whole film including the end into context. And if you didn't start watching from the beginning, there is very little chance you will understand what is going on.

John Hurt stars as Ben, the stroke-induced husband, and all I can say is that it is a good job he wasn't paid by the line!! The other leads in the film are the easy-on-the-eye Kate Hudson and Gena Rowlands who both do the best they can with a slightly over-convoluted plot that attempts to stretch itself out a little too long! Overall this isn't a bad film but you would only need to watch it once and there are far superior thriller/chillers out there than this that are done bigger and far better! It is never really scary per se despite what the trailer might suggest and in fact this has more in common with something like The Gift than a proper horror thriller. I was not sure what to expect upon watching but I am sure it wasn't this- that said, I wasn't disappointed just a little under-awed.

And that is all I have to say about that...

Summary: A young woman becomes a carer for the victim of a stroke in a mysterious old house