The Skeleton Key (2005) |
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The Skeleton Key (2005) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Thriller |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Iain Softley (Director) Deleted Scenes-With Optional Director's Commentary Featurette-Making Of-Behind The Locked Door Featurette-Exploring Voodoo/Hoodoo Featurette-Recipe & Ritual: Making The Perfect Gumbo Featurette-Blues In The Bayou Featurette-Kate Hudson's Ghost Story Featurette-Plantation Life Featurette-Casting The Skeleton Key Featurette-John Hurt's Story Featurette-A House Called Felicity Featurette-Gena's Love Spell Trailer-Red Eye, King Kong |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2005 | ||
| Running Time | 99:36 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (78:48) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Language Select Then Ads Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Iain Softley |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Universal Pictures Home Video |
Starring |
Kate Hudson Gena Rowlands John Hurt Peter Sarsgaard Joy Bryant Maxine Barnett Fahnlohnee R. Harris Marion Zinser Deneen Tyler Ann Dalrymple Trula M. Marcus Tonya Staten Thomas Uskali |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $39.95 | Music | Ed Shearmur |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English for the Hearing Impaired Hungarian Dutch Danish Finnish Hebrew Icelandic Norwegian Swedish English Audio Commentary Hungarian Audio Commentary Dutch Audio Commentary Danish Audio Commentary Finnish Audio Commentary Hebrew Audio Commentary Icelandic Audio Commentary Norwegian Audio Commentary Swedish Audio Commentary |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Directed by Iain Softley whose previous film was the slightly quirky K-Pax, The Skeleton Key is a high quality supernatural thriller that delves into the world of magic and Hoodoo (as opposed to Voodoo which is quite different).
The story centres on Caroline Ellis (Kate Hudson) who is working in a hospice but is uncomfortable with the emphasis on profits and the lack of focus on patient care. She decides to take a job in the swampy south land of Louisiana caring for stroke patient Ben (John Hurt), who lives in a run down southern mansion with his devoted wife Violet (Gena Rowlands). Violet gives Caroline a skeleton key which she explains will open all the doors in the house.
While in the attic one day she hears noises and banging coming from behind a locked door which she finds cannot be opened with the skeleton key. Violet explains that the door has never been opened. When Caroline finally gets into the room she discovers many Hoodoo artefacts. Caroline enlists the help of Luke Marshall (Peter Sarsgaard), the estate’s lawyer, to learn more about Hoodoo and what it is she believes Violet might be hiding from her.
I have to admire director Iain Softley’s attempt at making a serious supernatural thriller film. The film has a very high production value which is reflected in the terrific cinematography and top notch set design. In the end I feel your enjoyment of the film may well hinge on your ability to believe in the Hoodoo magic presented in the film. As a sceptical person in regard to these sorts of things I was never really able to buy into this aspect of the story and maybe this affected my overall appreciation of the film.
The cast is generally extremely effective. Kate Hudson is perfectly well cast as the young and enthusiastic carer and Gena Rowlands adds a wonderful charm to the elderly Violet. Excellent is John Hurt in a role almost reminiscent of his role in The Elephant Man. As a stroke patient he has virtually no dialogue but manages to steal every scene he is in. Surprisingly less effective is Peter Sarsgaad as the young Lawyer. I understand why he was chosen for the role but I found him ultimately unconvincing as the southern lawyer which is disappointing as he is usually excellent in any role he tackles.
This film has some genuinely suspenseful moments. Unfortunately it paints itself into a corner plot wise and the final third of the film plays like a b-grade thriller and I found the ending less than satisfying . During a dramatic scene towards the end of the movie Violet tells Caroline that she must believe in Hoodoo in order for it to work. Maybe we as viewers must believe in it too because the ending just didn’t work for me. I didn’t believe in it and ultimately wasn’t able to buy into key aspects of this film.
Overall The Skeleton Key has been given a very pleasing transfer with only a few minor issues to note.
The image is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 which matches the original theatrical aspect ratio of the film. It is 16x9 enhanced.
The image exhibits very pleasing levels of sharpness and image detail. Shadow detail is very good and the image is free of any low level noise.
Colours are accurate and well saturated and exhibit natural skin tones. No evidence of colour bleeding was observed.
Some minor edge enhancement was observed such as the outline of a building at 6:11, but this should not be too noticeable or distracting for most viewers.
I sampled the subtitles which are white and easy to understand. They closely match the onscreen dialogue.
The DVD is presented as a dual-layered disc with RDSL encoding. The layer change occurs at 78:48 which is very well placed at a fade to black.
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The English soundtrack is of good quality but quite front oriented.
The English soundtrack is Dolby Digital 5.1 encoded at 384 Kb/s.
Dialog was easy to understand and I did not observe any issues with audio sync.
The original music by composer Ed Shearmur is excellent at underpinning the tension and emotion of the scenes and it is also impressive how he has been able to blend New Orleans influences into the soundtrack.
The soundtrack is very front oriented with the surrounds only being used for atmosphere and music. They were used quite effectively, for example during a rain storm at 25:54.
The subwoofer too was used fairly sparingly to enhance sound effects such as the abovementioned storm and was also used at times to enhance tension.
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The actual quantity of extras here is quite impressive but most of these are quite short and either have only a passing relevance to the actual film or are electronic press kit type material. Nonetheless if you enjoy the film this package of extras should keep you entertained for a while.
After the Universal Logo sequence we get the now ubiquitous Anti-Piracy advert followed by the typical copyright notices. The menus are nicely animated and 16x9 enhanced with appropriately spooky sound to accompany it.
Director Iain Softley delivers a fairly dry commentary but one that nonetheless delves with quite some detail into the process of making the film. He discusses all aspects of the film making process including some quite technical stuff. This is a commentary that might appeal to film students but is overall quite dull Despite the interesting information, I found it rather hard going.
A collection of deleted scenes including an alternative opening for the film. This is presented as one 22 minute block of footage. It would have been nice if it could have been broken up into individual scenes. This would have made it easier to watch the scene and then listen to the commentary, which is the way I prefer to watch deleted scenes. Director Iain Softley’s discussion of the reasons for the cutting of certain scenes is quite interesting and many good scenes were cut for the overall flow of the film.
Typical fluffy promotional featurette where the cast and crew gush over the film and their fellow cast and crew members.
This little featurette gives us a brief history of Voodoo and what it is about and then goes on to explain that Hoodoo is completely different. Hoodoo it seems is about magic, spells and herbs while Voodoo is an organised religion.
King (that’s a name) who describes himself as a producer, songwriter, singer, rapper and entertainer extraordinaire shows us how to make the “Perfect Gumbo”. This segment is over-stylized and I found the digital blurring of all logos and brands (which includes almost everything King is wearing) a bit annoying.
The film relied heavily on local music and this featurette showcases some of those musicians.
Actress Kate Hudson tells a personal ghost story about a house at which she stayed in London as a little girl while her mother was shooting a movie there.
Modern day plantation owners give us a brief idea of plantation life in the slave days.
Something of an extension of the ‘Making of Featurette’, this one features the cast and crew gushing over the cast. Contrary to the title, it contains very little discussion about the actual casting process. The featurette contains something of a spoiler about one of the major film twists and as such is best not viewed until you have watched the film first.
Actor John Hurt reads an extract from the memoir of a slave.
This featurette is about the house used for much of the shooting of the film and includes discussion about some of the pros and cons of shooting on location.
Actress Gena Rowlands details a so-called love spell involving popsicle sticks, a jar, honey and sugar.
Trailer for the film Red Eye.
Trailer for Peter Jackson’s King Kong.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
From what I can gather from reviews of the Region 1 DVD the only difference is in the trailers. We get trailers for Red Eye and King Kong while the Region 1 gets trailers for American Pie Presents: Band Camp, The Ice Harvest, War of the Worlds and Cinderella Man. I'd call this one a draw.
I must concede that The Skeleton Key is a well made supernatural thriller that I'm sure many will be enjoyed by many but it's a film that really didn't work for me. The video transfer is excellent and the soundtrack is good though nothing exceptional. The extras are very extensive but none of them alas are of any real substance.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Sony DVPNS575-S Progressive Scan, using Component output |
| Display | Panasonic PT-AE900E HD LCD Projector onto 90" 16x9 Screen. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 720p. |
| Audio Decoder | Logitech 5500 THX. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Logitech 5500 THX |
| Speakers | Logitech 5500 THX |