There was, is and will be a house of grief and horror. The most common setting for a horror/thriller movie. I said it before, the horror genre is the second most stereotyped genre in this world (action leads the way) and horror movies are either too straight-forward or too vague. Balance is the key. Skeleton key holds it well.

Picture a house in the swamp if you will. A young, innocent caretaker is responding to a job-wanted add, finding a house inhabited with three people. The lawyer, the wife and the ailing husband. She is given an order – take care of the husband and do not go into the attic.

Guess what she does?

The wife seems to be the one who is running the place. The husband is desperate in his attemps to run away from…what? Or who?

She is told a story about a black servant couple who was killed because they were caught trying to teach the master`s children the secrets of hoodoo.

The whole thing comes with a twist so I will not go into the details explaining the whole plot, but I was pleasantly surprised by the ending. It`s always nice to see a movie where the end is the complete opposite of everything you just saw and yet, it fits perfectly into the story line. Where you cannot believe what just transpired before your eyes and yet the whole thing fits together so perfectly that there isn`t any other way for the story to unravel.

The scenery is enchanting, like you just jumped back in time a hundred years. As if Mickey Rourke from “Angel heart” will come from around the corner and say Hi.

Gena Rowlands is excellent in the role of the bossy housewife and carries the whole movie. Kate Hudson is mediocre but John Hurt is great in his supporting role of the dying husband who is using all of his strenghts to get away.

All in all, something that passes off as a nice horror movie with not bad aftertaste. Always a treat.