Monday, October 10, 2005

The Skeleton Key

The funny thing was I wanted to watch this movie over the weekend, but decided against it. To my surprise, I got preview invites courtesy of FunkyGrad.com, so here's the review. On with the show shall we?

Hell-oh Nurse! Kate Hudson was the draw for me actually, and it would be interesting to see if she could pull off carrying The Skeleton Key on her shoulders. I would say if you're Kate's fan, then this movie's for you, since she's in almost every scene as the protagonist, in various states of (un)dress.

She plays Caroline, a nurse (did I just mention that?) who decides to call it a day when her moral consciousness calls out to her that being in a hospital, just isn't her cup of tea. She cares for her patients, but since hospital beds are always in demand, the recently deceased gets whisked away and forgotten pretty quickly. So she opts for hospice care, and chances upon the Devereaux couple, where Ben Devereaux has suffered a stroke, and wife Violet needed help in caring for the old man.

Perhaps she sees it as a chance for redemption, in not being there to provide that same level of care when her estranged dad was sick and thereafter dead even before she knew it. She takes it upon herself to do her utmost even when the patient is fully paralyzed, and the wife isn't too happy with her presence.

And what's a horror show, without the usual antics to spice things up? You have a house with 30 rooms (which you only see less than 10?), one of them rooms being the "mysterious-oh-you-cannot-enter" room, a skeleton key which opens every door (why don't they call it the Master Key? Probably not sexy-sounding enough), a creepy old lady and an even creepier old man, doors slamming, wind howling, always raining, a house with a mysterious past in the middle of a dark, skanky swamp, and hoodoo-magic (not voodoo, like the movie explains).

But perhaps these techniques are cliched already, and no longer working with audiences who have adapted to the Japanese/Korean/Thai style of horror techniques. It does get stale after 20 minutes into the show, with its crescendos and startles, and the filmmakers seemed to be aware of that, and stopped short of them. It did, however, generate some scares amongst the chicken-hearted - you can see them jump at their seats.

There's a twist towards the end, which I thought was neatly executed, answering the whos, the wheres, the hows, but leaving the whys until the very last moment. And when you ponder back into what had transpired, it makes some sense, and even adds a tinge of sadness to the entire madness. I am tempted to draw in a comparison with another movie, but if I do so, it'll probably spoil the surprise.

It's not an outright horror film, though the trailers seem to market it as such. What this film essentially is, is a nicely done thriller with some hoodoo elements thrown in. If you don't believe, it's not gonna affect you. And it's quite right. But even as Kate Hudson's a looker, I find it hard to recommend this film on a weekend. Strictly for weekday viewing only.

P.S I'm not much of a horror movie fan, but guess what, tomorrow going to watch The Wig you know? 2 scare-movies in a row. Gee.

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