Ok, I have to admit right off the bat that I really like Kate Hudson. I thought How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days was hilarious. Now, along comes Kate in The Skeleton Key. A horor / Thriller film aiming to shock us into submission. On the plus side it’s got a great poster.
However, and to my slight surprise… the project is getting thumbs down. Sometimes mild… sometimes hard with a few sprinkles of positive reviews thrown in there for good measure. Is nothing really good opening this week? Anyway, here is what some of the critics are saying about The Skeleton Key:
“Kruger’s surprise ending fails to pack the kind of wallop to justify the momentary head-scratching, while there are too few moments leading up to the big reveal that will give audiences the kind of jolt they’re expecting.”
Michael Rechtshaffen, HOLLYWOOD REPORTERThe finale, instead of tying the story together, is simply bewildering.”
Harvey S. Karten, COMPUSERVE“plays more like a Southern-fried episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE than a modern horror film, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
Stefan Halley, HERO REALM“Only die-hard Hudson fans or desperate horror junkies will find The Skeleton Key worth unlocking.”
Nev Pierce, BBC
As of right now The Skeleton Key is carrying a sad 39% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Still… the poster is enough to get me to see it :) But seriously folks, is it just me or has it been a long time since the last good horor film?
For a spoilerand explanation:
http://www.themoviespoiler.com/
Can someone explain the end to me, me and my girlfriend have a debate on how it ended? Also if their is a site that does explain it.
What exactly was the ending about, were they supposed to be the servents and taking time from peoples lives…????????????
I saw it, and I thought it was quite good actually.
Loved the ending.
Sure, it has it’s flaws here and there, but I’d still recommend to anyone who’s interested enough in seeing it.
Rating? 7.6
P.s. It’s not a horror movie.
It’s a mystery/thriller.
I watched the movie this past weekend and I really liked it. I thought the ending was great because it was not the normal horror movie.
I’m sorry but I totally disagree with most of the reviews of this movie. For those people who found the ending “bewildering” or “confusing”, you simply missed the boat. Maybe this is because today’s movie going audiences don’t like to think or maybe it truly was bad story telling. Either way if you understand the ending of the movie it brings the whole story together in a remarkable way and truly makes The Skeleton Key rank with some of M.Knight’s best (The Sixth Sense, Signs) in terms of plot twists and sheer suspense.
And as much as I’d love to explain the ending here I am committed to spoiler free commentary but feel free to email me if you disagree.
As usual Jon, you are mildly insane….Other than a modern Moby-ish Voodoo score (which is pretty good)…Everything about htis film looks so hack-ish and predictable. I feel embarassed for John Hurt just watching the TRAILER!
Kate hudson was fantastic in Almost Famous, but I’m beginning to think either that film was a fluke, or she just doesn’t know how to choose film scripts…
LONG TIME SINCE A GOOD HORROR FILM…are you insane…(Perhaps you mean to qualify that with: There has been Long time since a good PG-Rated Multiplex hollywood horror film…
The Koreans (A Tale of Two Sisters), Japanese (Ring, Dark Water, Ju-On, Pulse, etc) and Thais (Buppa Rahtree) have been putting out some very, very good horror pictures for the past 7 years (and many of the good hollywood ones are remakes (I disagree with you on DARK WATER by the way, but don’t consider it a horror film, but rather a drama that happens to have a ghost in it). Also, The Brits are beginning to step up with some good horror pictures (Dog Soldiers and THE DESCENT). Hell, War of the Worlds ranks as a pretty good ‘horror’ picture if you label it as such. Tje Devil’s Rejects was excellent if slightly different than a typical horror picture.
Could expectations have anything to do with it? It’s promoted as horror, while the director seem to think of it more like a psychological thriller.
I for one is looking forward to it. Really like the director, love the setting, and then of course there’s Kate Hudson. Yup. Lookin’ forward.
has this film only just opened in the us? here in the uk, it hd a very low key opening a few weeks back. seems to have been completely out of the blue and easily overshadowed by dark water. i heard absolutely nothing about this film, except mention of a trailer on here :) i haven’t seen it yet, but a few friends have and said its quite good, as oposed to the word that dark water is bad. its a shame this film hasn’t been talked about more.
The Skeleton Key looks good in my opinon, I want to see it, the trailers have somehow convinced me that this movie looks okay, so we’ll see…
Saw was an excellent horroe film, it kept me guessing who the sicko was all the way until the very very end; like 1 minute before the ending or something like that. Maybe Saw 2 will be good……
I actually read a hufe spoiler for the whole movie and seems like it could be good if it has good actiing and directing. I’ll see this if for no other reason than I’m a hue Peter Sargard fan.