Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Skeleton Key

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Posted by Don Anderson (Member # 397) on 08-12-2005, 02:51 AM:

I was expecting to see another dud, but was pleasantly surprised. I'm just glad that the trailer doesn't show all the good stuff and ruin the ending. Gotta love the old mansion where all this takes place. Didn't expect the twist at the end of the film. I'd give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. I think that pre-teens will be bored, as its not a horror movie or slasher film or full of boobies! Its not a "Sixth Sense", but still damn good. Reel #4 had all kinds of dirt on it from the lab. I wasn't sure if it was rain or dirt!

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-12-2005, 03:08 AM:

Agreed on all accounts, except that my print was flawless from beginning to end. This is more of a "thinker" horror/suspense movie than mindless crazy man chases naked screaming girl, but that's what makes it so good (even if Greco doesn't agree).

4 out of 5 stars

Definitely go see this movie. [thumbsup]

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 08-13-2005, 02:19 PM:

Word this movie was so much better than I thought it would be.
The ending is excellent and the suspense is great.
Print wasn't dirty, looked fantastic to be honest, didnt' have any lab splices either.
Decent sound mix, definitely worth watching.
The teens in our area screamed louder than the movie last night.
Damn kids.
You definitely don't see the end coming. Good story too.
There was only a couple parts I could tell were coming, standard scarry movie fare, but still a good movie.

4/5

Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 08-14-2005, 10:20 AM:

Very good thriller. I don't understand why so many critics hate this. It's well written and well acted, moves at a good pace and, with the exception of a couple of scenes, doesn't rely on typical horror movie scares.

4/5

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 08-14-2005, 05:17 PM:

Today, Regal Cinema World 8 in Eugene, House #6, SR-D. Attendance: 8. This is a ~42' screen with a relatively short throw, lotsa keystoning, and the right edge of the scope image is lopped off (noticeable in credits). It was probably as sharp as they could make it, but image quality is never that great on that screen. Sound was good.

THE SKELETON KEY is better than I was expecting. You know something's going on, but you're not sure what. Then I thought I figured it out (I'm so smart!) before they did the reveal, but then they added a twist I wasn't prepared for. All in all this is well-made, well-acted, involving, a little creepy, and a good piece of entertainment. It will have a short shelf-life in theaters, but might almost be worth buying when the DVD makes its appearance in, oh, probably November.

Why did they have Kate Hudson driving an old Volkswagen Beetle? That seemed really out of place. Maybe it's just me.

Posted by Eric Hooper (Member # 1730) on 08-15-2005, 02:48 PM:

I thought this was great!

Spoilers:

l

l

l

l

l

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Reminded me of THE SIXTH SENSE and THE OTHERS

It totally fooled me and I did not see that coming at the end at all. I glad it didn't cop out and let her survive or escape at the end either.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 08-15-2005, 08:30 PM:

CINEMA: Cinemark 16, Ft Collins, CO
AUDITORIUM: 8
PRESENTATION: Mystery Meat Digital
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Shaky picture
RATING: Two and one half stars (out of four)

WARNING: Mild spoilers may result in less heartburn than spicy spoilers

This place could really use some TLC. The screws and bolts that hold the seats together appear to be coming loose. Sit down and hear a loud “thunk” as you plop quickly to the reclining position without trying. Look down the aisles and see how the seat backs aren’t even. Raise the retractable armrests with amazing ease. Sound is another issue...The audio quality in here is just crap anymore. I don’t know if I’ve just gotten so used to the sound at a THX Century that it just sounds that bad to me or if something’s gone horribly wrong, but I swear this place used to have better sound quality than it does now. It smells like dirty laundry in here. Maybe it’s the guy behind me. Maybe not. And how many trailers do we need in front of the feature, anyway? They just kept going and going...

Oh yeah...They eventually showed a movie. It wasn't as good as I'd hoped for. I actually figured out the big secret when they showed the flashback as the old lady explained the history of that room to Kate Hudson’s character. I didn’t figure out all the particulars, but enough of it that nothing at the end surprised me. I was kinda bored through a lot of this. The ending WAS nicely done...almost Stepford Wives nice in execution.

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 08-27-2005, 01:35 PM:

I liked it, but i wish they didn't telegraph most of the secrets midway through the movie. Except for the very final twist, the rest of the movie was very predictable.
But then, I realized I might have misunderstood the full extent of the ending.
SPOILER STARTS
This is what I initially thought happened. I thought the boy and girl were Peter Saarsgard and Gena Rowlands. Gena's husband Hurt(Ben) found out the secret about his wife, and Gena wants to kill him off so her secret would be safe. At the end, Gena and Kate switch bodies.

Then today, while I was writing this review, I realized, did the black Hoodoo servants switch bodies with the kids before getting hanged? The white parents merely thought they were teaching the kids hooodoo, not realizing it was the blacks servants in their kids bodies that were actually in the candle room , and the white kids were probably protesting the hanging because they didnt' want to see the kids die or physically witness their bodies being hanged. I just got that point, because i remembered how Kate hudson after the switch tells Peter she wanted to switch with a black person for once. So anywa, the kids are the ones that actually get hanged. The servants sell the house to the Gena-Hurt couple. But then the servants switch with the new couple. At some point, Hurt switches with Peter Saarsgaard, and that is Peter Saarsgaard's soul actually in Hurt's body pleading for help, and in the final scene, that is Peter and Kate in the old couple's bodies. What is yet undetermined is what happened to Gena and Hurt's souls that got switched to the white siblings' bodies. Did the black servants possessed Gena-hurt couple kill off the Gena-Hurt possessed white siblings?

Here's what I dont understand about the mirrors yet. Why is Gena afraid fo the mirrors? Only she can use it against others. Why would she be afraid of them? Or she couldn't psychologically handle it? Or would she appear as the black servant in the mirror and didn't want strangers to know that? When they show a black servant in the mirror Kate holds, was Gena probably walking in teh background? That threw me off because I intially thought that was a black ghost walking instead of how Gena came off in the mirror.
SPOILERS END

Still nicely done and worth watching.
Greco factor is there. You get to see Kate's breasts from the side view briefly with a nice extended view of her bare back.
Shots of her in her panties.