The Skeleton Key

Here's a surprise: a Kate Hudson movie that doesn't suck. It's actually pretty good, a slickly made horror film that relies mostly on psychological thrills than visceral ones, and makes good use of its backwoods Louisiana setting.

Hudson, who way back when was an Oscar-nominated actress, has since become something of a joke, although presumably her skein of lame romantic comedies must earn money, because she hasn't had to resort to a sitcom. But one wonders at the decision, somewhere shortly after making Almost Famous, when she opted for frothy garbage rather than serious films. I hope she's happy with her decision.

The Skeleton Key, a 2005 film directed by Iain Softley, is not a serious film, but it's not frothy. Hudson stars as a health care worker who takes a job as a live-in attendant in a mansion deep in the Louisiana bayou. Her patient is John Hurt, a stroke victim, whose wife, Gene Rowlands, is domineering. Rowlands' lawyer, Peter Sarsgaard, persuades her to hire Hudson, as several homecare workers have already quit.

It soon becomes clear why they quit. From Rowlands' edict that no mirrors be hung in the house, to the perpetually terrified loo in Hurt's eyes, something is clearly amiss. The mansion itself is, as the standard goes, big and creepy, and there's a secret room in the attic. Finally Rowlands tells Hudson about a pair of African Americans, who worked as servants, and how they were lynched for practicing hoodoo (which is pointedly differentiated from voodoo, perhaps to forestall angry comments by Haitians).

Softley does a nifty job making the whole thing chilling. I especially liked the use of an ancient recording that recorded a hoodoo ritual--I can still hear the incantation in my head. Hudson gives a fine performance, without frills, and if there are the usual cliches--storms have a habit of occurring whenever something important is going on--they are handled deftly.

In this age of horror films being aimed at the lowest common denominator, it's nice to see a film like The Skeleton Key aiming a little higher. It's a better-than-average spookfest.