"Skeleton Key"

I saw this movie in Circuit City about a month ago and decided I had to rent it at first opportunity. I convinced Dustin to let me rent it when we were at the video store Saturday night, since he got to rent the PS 2 game "50 Cent: Bulletproof". (Word of advice: do NOT rent that game; it is absolutely D-U-M-B. Don't even get me started on how many things I disliked about it--and I wasn't even paying that close attention while he played. Like the fact 50 Cent is wearing a humongous, *bling bling* cross around his neck while running around shooting people...or the fact that I heard "In Da Club" about 50 consecutive times within a time span of 30 minutes...or....ok, I'm done now.)

ANYWAY, the movie we watched...
I like Kate Hudson as an actress, even though the only other thing I've seen her in is "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days", and I like her even more after seeing "Skeleton Key". I'm easily scared, so to me, the movie was pretty creepy. She takes a job as a hospice caretaker on this old plantation in Louisiana's bayou. Finding out the house and the woman she is helping are more than meets the eye, she thinks about quitting and leaving. But, she changes her mind, thinking she would be abandoning Ben (the man for whom she's caring, who had a stroke while he was up in the attic). The movie deals with old Southern Louisiana "roots" (?) like voodoo, hoodoo, conjuring, and spirits...and also what happens when you dabble with these things.

Parts of the movie were pretty easy to figure out--I knew "whodunit" pretty quickly--but Dustin pointed out some things I missed. There are some fabulous camera angles, along with some really neat effects done while in editing. The ending is a cleverly done kind of twist, in my opinion, and the special features on the DVD are pretty cool. (Although I wish they would have been longer, easier to see--they used some camera effects that were better left for the movie, and more in depth.)

However, I'd buy it for my collection, and I'd definitely recommend it.