Darkthorn’s Blog

COM14 – Assessment Task 1 – Part 3

Review of a Thriller
The Skeleton Key
Director: Iain Softley
Producer: Clayton Townsend, Daniel Bobker, Stacey Sher
Cast: Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands, John Hurt, Peter Sarsgaard, Joy Bryant
Running time: 104 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for violence, disturbing images, partial nudity, thematic material.

By Rosemarie Herbert

From the start, something is not quite right at home, as The Skeleton Key opens to dripping scenery and creepy music. You spend a lot of the film sitting on the edge of your seat, mentally begging Kate Hudson not to go into the locked attic room or silently urging her to just go home. Hudson does a good job of playing Caroline as a plucky, determined young woman, but the character seems to lack some depth and certainly is missing a large amount of logic and common sense.

Caroline is a young southern personal care attendant, who has discovered that she wants something more from life than just looking after people in a callous aged-care business. Her dream is to become a nurse, so she takes a job as in-house carer. The job description, which includes a pay check of $1000 a week, should set off alarm bells for Caroline, but instead we find her driving off in her little VW to meet the dying man and his eccentric, possessive wife. A dilapidated gas station run by a forbidding family sets the scene, creating a palpably distressing atmosphere that will guarantee you jump in your seat.

The Skeleton Key is based on hoodoo, which is actually different from voodoo. It manages to sketchily discuss the difference, for hoodoo is the practical application of voodoo, the religion. Hoodoo is a combination of spells and superstitions that are derived from a variety of folk beliefs. Care has been taken by the director to ensure these details are correct, and on the special features disc, there is a section by Voodoo Priestess Mama Lola, Voodoo Practitioner and Voodoo Initiate Princess Wekenon, who explain the history of voodoo. Poor Caroline has no such easy option, choosing instead to have her African American friend (Joy Bryant) explain it all to her on her infrequent visits back to town.

Hoodoo, we are assured, only works if you believe in it, and Caroline steadily increases her fear as Ben (John Hurt), her disabled patient, shows all the signs and symptoms of the cursed. A failed attempt to bring him to his senses using a hoodoo ritual, as well as his wife Violet’s (Gena Rowlands) spurious worry about Ben’s medications, draws Caroline further into the mysteries of the house.

Violet protests that Caroline isn’t “going to understand the house” and who would? Creative camera angles when Caroline first visits the eerie attic imply that the house itself is indeed watching her. This includes the typical horror movie’s shaking door that “no-one has opened” and a strange collection of be-cobwebbed hoodoo objects.

The film is made by the great casting and excellent direction, but is let down slightly by its screen writer, Ehren Kruger, who seems to mistake the thriller genre for some kind of V8 acceleration. The first 75 minutes are slow and controlled, building well on the hoodoo focus and general air of creepiness. Unfortunately, the story suddenly rushes into a frenzied climax, as Caroline attempts to escape with Ben in tow in an invalid interpretation required chase scene.

Without saying too much, the twist ending is a shock, because the requisite happy ending just doesn’t show its head.