The Skeleton Key (2005)

The Skeleton Key is one of those movies that uses a white lead character to explore an aspect of black culture while most of the black characters remain peripheral -- sort of like a supernatural A Time to Kill, or Breakin'. Thus, I was a bit apprehensive as to where the story was coming from, but it's best enjoyed if you just let the movie play out until the final obligatory "twist" reveals what the heck is going on -- and doesn't degrade the race. It's basically a haunted house tale that invokes the black horror tradition of voodoo -- or in this case, hoodoo -- with pretty young thing Caroline (Kate Hudson) taking a job as a live-in caretaker for sickly oldtimer Ben (John Hurt), only to find that the old Louisiana plantation may be haunted by some Negro "spooks". Her best friend Jill (Joy Bryant) just so happens to know a thing or two about hoodoo and helps her figure out how to drown cats in goat's blood during a full moon, or whatever it is they do. Ever since The Sixth Sense, thriller "twists" have become increasingly lame and pointless, but in The Skeleton Key, it actually works quite well. It works so well, in fact, you may not even realize how well until several minutes or hours (or for the slower amongst you, days) after the movie ends. "Oooh, now I get it" may be a common exclamation in homes around the country, accompanied by the requisite head slap. The ending is actually even a bit funny, depending on your point of view and political affiliation.

"Could you grab my loofah?"	Police found a grisly scene in Bubbles' Neverland pen.
"Excuse me, where are the white people?"	"You can't out-crazy me! Watch me eat poo!"