Hey... thanks.

Copied and pasted from the Box office bash Crowd report thread (I am that lazy):

I saw The skeleton key the Sunday of its first wekeend. Quite a few people for the last show.

The movie was...ok. The suspense kind of worked and I think people were trying to guess what was going on... It's not like "The grudge" - a collection of scare scenes and killings - and thankfully enough it is not all about a dead person with long wet hair and scratching fingernails who wants revenge and to rest in peace, so basically spends the whole film freaking people out... The suspense is there, and for most of the movie, It keeps you intrigued, although the character interaction does not work.

But then, there is a twist ending. Big news are, It actually works. I'm not sure it was completely properly executed, neither I think It's totally original, but in a horror film it was a really interesting concept, and more importantly, scary as hell. Terrifying, actually. Loved it, loved it, and It made the rest of the film much more enjoyable in retrospect.

Caroline Ellis (Kate Hudson) is a nurse living in New Orleans who is ready for a change in her life. Fed up with her job at a local hospital, she decides to quit and search for a better job - one with a more personal relationship between patient and caretaker. She finds that job working in Terrabone Parrish, a swampy and desolate area an hour outside of town. Violet Devereaux (Gena Rowlands) and her lawyer Luke (Peter Sarsgaard) recruit Caroline for the job of taking care of Ben (John Hurt), Violet's husband who recently suffered a stroke that paralyzed him. With nothing left for her in New Orleans except for her best friend Jill (Joy Bryant), Caroline picks up and moves in with the old couple.

After a few days there she begins to notice something strange going on. Ben seems terrified of something in the house and Violet seems to be a woman with many secrets. She also discovers a hidden room upstairs in the attic, containing many strange and disturbing things. Violet is very protective of the rooms in the house and has specific rules of living - mainly the fact that there should be no mirrors in the house. Searching for more information, Caroline must unravel the mystery of the house and its owner before it is too late.

After the success of the smash hit films THE RING and THE SIXTH SENSE, the ghost story genre pretty much exploded, with several new films appearing each year with some supernatural element to their stories. THE SKELETON KEY is one of many released this year, but it shouldn't be compared to them. It takes the haunted house premise and adds a fresh spin to it, incorparating voodoo and witchcraft into the story.

Kate Hudson is amazing as Caroline, giving one of her finest performances to date. As the lead, she is sympathetic and likable - delivering a portrayl with lots of depth and emotion. The supporting cast is also excellent. Gena Rowlands is convincingly creepy as Violet, a woman with a dark past. John Hurt has no dialogue but still delivers a great performance - making you really feel for his character. Peter Sarsgaard and Joy Bryant are both solid as the friend and the lawyer, respectively.

The visual style of the film is also fantastic and makes it even more enjoyable. Director Iain Softley really gives the film a great look and atmosphere, giving Louisiana a sense of haunting beauty. He doesn't rely on quick edits or lame scares to keep the audience interested, this is a film that builds and builds until it reaches the finale.

Ehren Kruger does a fantastic job with the screenplay. No stranger to the horror genre, Kruger has also written the screenplays for THE RING and SCREAM 3, among others, and he knows how to create memorable characters. This film is no exception. He also comes up with one of the most surprising and shocking endings in recent memory - one that rivals THE SIXTH SENSE in terms of originality. I can't stress this point enough - DO NOT let someone ruin the ending of this film for you. I was tempted to look but thankfully I didn't, and it made the film a much better experience.

Overall, THE SKELETON KEY is the best film of its type since THE RING, without question. It relys on atmosphere and dread rather than boo scares and keeps the audience interested from its compelling beginning to its shocking end. Highly recommended and easily one of the best films of the year so far.

9/10 (A)

Extremely creepy and surprisingly scary, The Skeleton Key is probably the best horror thriller of the year. Kate Hudson is great here, as is the rest of the cast, and the director clearly knows what he's doing. Consistently suspenseful and chilling, I give the film an A.

Every once in a while, a movie comes out of left field and surprises me. I had expected The Skeleton Key to be a serviceable thriller that would provide a few cheap shocks. Instead, I got a twisted mind trip of a film that sort of blew my mind. I'm not sure how the general audience is going to react to this movie, but I loved it. The Louisana scenery effectively sets a grim mood for the film; sunshine is rarely seen. While The Skeleton Key isn't exactly scary, it more than makes up for it by slowly developing into a wonderfully creepy white-knuckler towards the end of the film. One must be patient with this film, because it takes its time getting there. Kate Hudson is very good as Caroline, who is smarter than many of the protaganists that inhabit supernatural thrillers. Gena Rowlands is appropriately creepy and John Hurt does a good job acting with his eyes. Peter Sarsgaard and Joy Bryant don't have much to do but are on hand to provide some support. The best thing about this film is the last three or four minutes, which contain a twist ending that I just did not see coming at all and changed the entire film for me. This twist ending will either give The Skeleton Key a boost or kill its legs, depending on how audiences react to it. If they all react like I did, this may become a leggy sleeper. Excellent film. A-

I'm really glad everyone is loving this! I can't stop thinking about it, the ending is just amazing. And I do think it will have decent legs, way better than those of DARK WATER and THE RING TWO.

Caroline Ellis (Kate Hudson, RAISING HELEN) is an employee at a New Orleans nursing home. While there, she becomes disenchanted with the emotional barrier between the patients who slowly fall further and further into despair before dying and the staff who see them as items, in and out for a price. The final straw is when one of her patients, an elderly man, dies and when no family member stops in for his few remaining earthly posessions, a nurse tells her to throw his remaining things into the dumpster. She decides to leave the nursing home and, after scanning newspaper ads, decides to become a live-in nurse for an ailing invalid named Ben Devereaux (John Hurt, ALIEN) in Terrabone Parrish, a rural area consisting mainly of alligator-infested swamps one hour outside of New Orleans. There she believes she'll be able to develop a more intimate, one-on-one relationship with her patient.

Though her only friend in New Orleans, Jill (Joy Bryant, SPIDER-MAN 2), warns her about the very odd things she may experience in Terrabone Parrish, Caroline goes and is hired by the Devereaux's charming lawyer (Peter Sarsgaard, GARDEN STATE) and Ben's wife Violet (Gena Rowlands, PLAYING BY HEART), though she has misgivings about hiring someone not born in the South. At first Caroline finds the Devereaux job fairly routine, but while investigating the home using the skeleton key Violet gave her, which opens all the doors in the house, she uncovers a mysterious room Violet claims she's never been into. The room is cramped and filled with various strange items, including magic spells.

With the discovery of this mysterious room, Caroline begins to experience strange things. Her dreams are haunted by visions of various grotesque acts, Ben seems to be trying to contact her by any means possible, and Violet is far from forthcoming when Caroline brings to her attention odd aspects of her home, including the fact that all the mirrors have been torn from the walls. Caroline slowly unravels the mystery of the Devereaux home, which leads her to the haunted story of two hoodoo (a voodoo-esque belief system) practitioners murdered nearly one century ago, Papa Justify (Ronald McCall, THE IN CROWD) and Mama Cecile (Jeryl Prescott Sales, THE EPICUREANS). Though Caroline's better sense would have her leave and never return to the possibly haunted home, Caroline is haunted by the memory of her father, who she didn't know was ill and who died while she was busy traveling across the nation as a band manager. She doesn't want to leave Ben, who she believes may be innocent of the supernatural goings-on, alone in the home to die in fear.

THE SKELETON KEY is 2005's first dose of Southern gothic horror, a well-made and smart chiller with a dense atmosphere and a handsome A-list cast. The film's production teams deserves much credit for creating a splendidly gothic and detailed production. Director Iain Softley (THE WINGS OF THE DOVE) has a very strong sense of suspense, but also restraint. His camera moves hauntingly through the shadow-filled halls of the Devereaux home and the film seems to have been dipped in a vat of unique Southern atmosphere. Softley's vision of rural Louisiana is so strong, this movie may've been chilling without a single line of dialogue. The dripping Southern gloom is that wonderfully realized. Equally brilliant is production designer John Beard's (THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST) creations, mainly the scary and detailed room where Papa Justify's many magical tools are stored.

The strongest cast members are the two main women, Hudson and Rowlands. Hudson does the typical horror lead actions, including much screaming, running, and breathing hard, but she also sells, in a most subtle fashion, her character's consuming guilt over not being there for her father and allowing him to die alone. On the surface, this may seem to be a solid performance at best, but there are nuances to be found and Hudson proves she can be great without smiling madly in every scene. Rowlands steals the show, though, deliciously chewing scenery as the possibly sinister and no-doubt eccentric Devereaux wife. Classic actor Hurt has suprisingly little to do and has, at most, five lines in the entire film. He is called upon to seem both scared and paralyzed, which he has more than enough chops to pull off well. And Sargaard, who was robbed of Oscar nominations for his turns in KINSEY and SHATTERED GLASS, is not award-worthy here, but its not his fault. His character exists to propel the plot and he fills the rather thin character with charm and sports a perfectly believable Southern accent.

THE SKELETON KEY is a great horror film, which has a wildly effective atmosphere, a tight pace, a well-drawn screenplay (which climaxes in a haunting manner), a superb cast of respected talents, and a potent amount of scares. It may not be perfect in all respects and some may hate its heavily Southern tone, but if you enjoyed THE GIFT and ANGEL HEART, or horror/thrillers in general, I recommend you try out THE SKELETON KEY.

B+

Woa... It seems that the twist not only worked for me...

Great twist. Haunting idea. I hope the movie has some legs!

So is this a horror film or psychological thriller or what? Is it based in reality (no ghost women climing out of television sets, etc)?

It is definitely fantastic, as there is something supernatural (or not ) going on... but it is not a full-blown horror film, more like a psichological horror mistery...

icee.

l'm having theater withdrawl...absolutely nothing l want to see. this might have to do.

I was in limbo as to see this or not. Now I will definitely see it. Thanks for all the reviews.

Excellent film, I really loved it. Glad to see others enjoyed it, as well.

Grade: A/A-

Full review later? If I feel like it.

Those are really really good reviews here considering it's like the 15th horror movie of the year. Can't wait.

A pleasent surprise. Before seeing the movie (other than all the talk about some 'twist' ending), I expected a good horror outing. And, that's exactly what I got until the twist ending. The ending elavated The Skeleton Key from a decent horror flick to a great one. The ending was downright shocking, and one of the best I've seen in a while. The best part is, it actually worked, unlike other horror films as of late. The bayou of Louisana setting worked well with this movie, and made it a bit more creepy. The film is not scary, despite what the commercials may say. At times, it can get a little creepy, but never scary. But, the fact that it didn't need cheap jumpers to make the film work was also impressive. Fine performances from Kate Hudson (who looked beautiful in this film), Gena Rowlands (who was the most creepy thing about this movie, in my opinion), and John Hurt. The film is very good, but the ending made the film great. I enjoyed it a lot. B+

Lecter, I highly recommend it. If you enjoyed Dark Water, you'll like this one as well.

Well I thought it was scary as fuck, but then again I get scared easily.

The twist was pretty predictable half way through the movie but I didnt have it totally figured until the lawyer guy turned on Hudson's character than I put 2 and 2 together and it was already figured out. Still I guess I wasnt really a fan of all those PG-13 horrors so this was the better one of those type of PG horror genres. I probably would give it a B-

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I agree with you that it was pretty good thriller - not horror movie - but the twist wasn't that big - there weren't many choices. The flashback scenes with the kids gave it away. And this is how they did some horror / thrillers in the past - maybe the 70's - I have seen similar things before.

I did like how the young lawyer was locked in the John Hurt character. I also liked how the book/spell was the opposite of the truth.

The only thing that I didn't buy was how they would have wanted to switch places with the kids - they didn't make sense unless they were sick and in a hurry but that was never implied.

Well made thriller with fine performances.

B+

Quite a surprise for a film that really didn't appear that good from the trailer and advertising. The entire film though was a perfect example of great filmmaking. From the moment it begins, sans credits, to the shocking conclusion, Skeleton Key is one film that you will not quickly forget.

Hudson and the rest of the cast all provide excellent performances and certainly help to elevate the film even further. While some may feel alienated slightly by the twist, it works very well and is both shocking and a perfect. A-

Kate Hudson has made a career out of starring predominantly in romantic comedies such as 'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.' Well, after last summer's 'Raising Helen' tanked she has decided to branch out into the PG-13 horror sub-genre popularized by the likes of 'The Grudge' and 'The Ring', the one that started the trend back in 2002. Her entry into the sweepstakes is 'The Skeleton Key,' a film written by Ehren Kruger (who wrote 'The Ring' and its sequel) and directed by Iain Softley ('K-PAX').

Hudson stars as a hospice caretaker for an elderly couple (Gena Rowlands and John Hurt) in the backwoods of Louisiana. Upon her arrival at the expansive estate where they live, she is given a "Skeleton key" with the ability to open seemingly every room in the house. Well, it is not long before she discovers this to be far from the truth as the key fails to open a door in the attic and the couple are far from responsive when asked about it. As she begins to investigate, strange happenings start to come about, many of them having to do with the world of Voodoo. Said occurrences are at first relatively benign but they soon threaten the livelihood of the estate's inhabitants.

'The Skeleton Key' attempts to make something old (Voodoo) new again by making it the center-piece of a horror film. This tactic had some potential as Voodoo is inherently creepy (all the chanting and black magic) but it is not to be as the end product is, for the most part, a generic supernatural thriller. One hopes that next month's 'Venom,' written by Kevin 'Scream' Williamson takes a more inventive approach to the topic of Voodoo.

The film's problems start with a scattershot and undernourished screenplay. Kruger falters where he excelled with 'The Ring' as he fails to provide a well-developed back story, mythos if you will, to the events at hand. Vodoo practically screams out for an expansive and rich back story but what we are given here are a few grainy and shoddily edited scenes filmed in black and white. Perhaps the fault also lies with director Softley as he favors the jumpy camera so irritatingly common these days, maybe as a function of avoiding the dreaded R-rating as it is often difficult to see what is happening, a problem especially during the flashback sequences.

The film also struggles to provide anything new in the scare department. No matter how many odd camera angles are used, a loud noise as a scare tactic just doesn't cut it. The film is further hampered as Kruger's screenplay seems to plan everything for the almost inevitable twist which pulls the rug out from under the viewer. He did this incredibly well with 1999's brilliant paranoia thriller 'Arlington Road' but here the twist can be seen or even guessed by anyone who has viewed a thriller or two during their lifetime.

In the performance department, the film gets it right however. In the lead, Hudson is likable and thankfully resists the temptation to go over the top. Rowlands and Hurt both do their part as well with Rowlands obviously relishing her role as the creepy wife. Lending support as a friend of the family, Peter Sarsgaard once again shows why he is one of the better young actors working today with a perfectly understated turn.

In the end though, 'The Skeleton Key' does not bring anything new to the supernatural horror genre and thus cannot be recommended unless you are a die-hard fan of such offerings.

Grade: C

It's really a fantastic twist ending, and for me it saved the movie. While it was well shot and well acted, the movie is completely free of anything close to scary. However, I agree it was much more of a thriller, and in that way it worked well. B+

I loved it. Very well written and the twist was great. I am urprised that anyone could say they figured out the twist before the end of the film. Very very well done. And kudos to Krueger for being on a hot streak ever since he wrote Arlington Road.

9/10

Hey baumer, what did you think of The Ring Two, Imposter, and Reindeer Games? You know Ehren Krueger wrote all of those after Arlington Road right?

Reindeer Games isn't a bad movie.