To say I went into this with low expectations would be an understatement. I saw the trailers and the commercials and thought that it looked halfway decent, but there was no way I was going to get my hopes up. I have done that too many times in the past, only to have them squashed in the aftermath of mediocrity.

The Skeleton Key is far from perfect, the story does get muddy towards the end. The problem that it falls into is in its attempt to be too clever. After it's all over you need to think to long and hard to make sure that it holds together, rather than having it's details truly haunt you long after the final reel ends. Despite all of that, the story is still interesting in it's manipulations, better than the story itself is it's script. If you take the plot out you are left with the interactions of it's characters, and those interactions are well paced and nicely executed.

There are a couple of things about the film which are refreshing in the realm of modern supernatural suspense. We have a film that doesn't center on, or even really contain, a creepy kid. As good as some creepy kid movies are, enough is enough. The other refreshment is the lack of the jump scare. This is the type of movie where you expect them to throw in a lot of jump scares, that doesn't happen here. The pacing is more methodical, even and even a bit slow, but it all works. The music does have moments of being overbearing, but nothing that leads to the jump, just a little dread.

If you are curious as to what the story is about, let me give you a taste. I don't want to say too much, as I may run the risk of spoiling it. The film concerns Caroline, a Hospice worker who is looking to have more of an impact. She finds a job in a creepy old house in the swamps of New Orleans. There she is to help Ben, a man who suffered a debilitating stroke, and his wife Violet, an older woman who is set in her ways, and just may be hiding something. We get stories of hoodoo, and hangings, and ghosts in the mirrors, all building a tapestry the combines confusion and misdirection. Without giving anything away, the confusion builds as the pace accelerates on it's way to it's conclusion, which is a bit of a letdown, but still decidedly un-Hollywood.