Der verbotene Schlüssel (2005)

Der verbotene Schlüssel: Directed by Iain Softley. With Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands, John Hurt, Peter Sarsgaard. A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house’s dark past.

“Horror movies have become a dime a dozen in the past few years. The watchable ones seem to fall into two categories of late: misguided psychological thrillers headlined by a consummate actress (witness Naomi Watts in u0026quot;The Ring 2u0026quot; or Jennifer Connelly in u0026quot;Dark Wateru0026quot;) or over the top slasher/gore-fests with serious kitsch value (witness Romerou0026#39;s enjoyable zombie flick u0026quot;Land of the Deadu0026quot; or Rob Zombieu0026#39;s sadistic u0026quot;Devilu0026#39;s Rejectsu0026quot;). All of the rest have pretty much been unbearable cliché-ridden hack jobs (u0026quot;White Noise,u0026quot; u0026quot;Darkness Falls,u0026quot; etc…) u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOddly enough, u0026quot;The Skeleton Keyu0026quot; doesnu0026#39;t fall into any of these categories and it comes across as a breath of fresh air, an old-fashioned throwback to the traditional Gothic mystery thriller, where a pretty female outsider (Kate Hudson acquitting herself rather nicely here as the hospice nurse traveling deep into the Bayou to care for an apparent stroke victim) moves into a big old house/castle that just might be haunted. The director and screenwriter start things slowly, and do a nice job of creating a realistic setting before letting all the mumbo-jumbo slowly and effectively creep in. Gena Rowlands and John Hurt (immobile and mute for most of the film) are fairly good in their respective roles as the married couple with more than just skeletons in their closets. Weu0026#39;ve seen this stuff all before, but itu0026#39;s done fairly well here with no sense of flash or pretensions, and as silly (and potentially offensive) as all this Hoodoo in the Bayou stuff is, the audience is treated to a twist ending that makes perfect sense in the context we have been given. This isnu0026#39;t a twist ending for twisting sake, but a fitting conclusion to the story.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;The Skeleton Keyu0026quot; tries to remind people of classics like u0026quot;Rosemaryu0026#39;s Babyu0026quot; and u0026quot;The Others.u0026quot; It may not ultimately hold a candle to those films, but itu0026#39;s a very entertaining way to spend a few hours.”