22 Comments

This movie made me appreciate the art of suspense giving the perfect amount of horror and thrills I want without ANY of the gore that many films tend to run to for that effect. It's not needed! I love this movie. I watch it once a year. It actually relaxes me now when I watch it.

Other movies that I feel similarly about are Hide and Seek (Dakota Fanning and Robert Dinero are great), oh and 1408 (John Cusack). Have you seen those?

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I LOVE this movie - so underrated. The ending is perfection.

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The ending. Literally *haunts* me. 😅 Thank you for reading and leaving a comment, Natalie!! 🙏🏼💚

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I remember watching this, and enjoying it more than I expected to (probably based on reviews).

:)

Perhaps even more obscure: but did anyone play the Sierra point-and-click adventure game, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers? Also New Orleans, Voodoo and murder, with voice acting by Tim Curry, Leah Rimini and Mark Hamill.

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Oh my gosh, that's awesome! What a deep cut! I don't play video games but I would love to watch a play-through of this! 🤓😁

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Mar 18Liked by Maribel

You got me, now I need to watch it!

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DO IT. IT'S FREE ON YOUTUBE RIGHT NOWWWW!

🕯️🗡️📿🧿

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I've never seen the film but I'd love to read the book and then watch it because I love Kate Hudson.

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Oh, it's a good one. As classic as Kate Hudson ever got in the 2000's. Man, she reigned large at that time!

And I don't believe it's a book! I think the script was written for the screen. 🤓

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Ohhh. I'm sure there's a skeleton key book but it's probably nothing to do with this film 😂 I'll watch the film.

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🤣🤣🤣 well if you do end up watching it, let me know what you think! 🙌🏼

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My head immediately went to King's book, which I frickin' loved in middle or high school!

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Skeleton Crew??

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holy crap, you're right! What did my brain just do to me?

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LOL Well with this kind of movie, I think a lot people assume that it was adapted from an original source. But can ya believe it - it's an original script! 🤓

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I think I just wanted to see "Skeleton Crew" so I could think more about that book. Those King anthologies were great!

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As soon as I was notified my mind went "surely she doesn't mean that skeleton key!"

Well lucky me, you did! I watched this movie when I was... well, I'm not sure how old but definitely under the age of 10. To this day I still remember the music croaking through the old record player. And the scene where she puts down the salt circle. I remember being absolutely enthralled! It's good to know it still holds up mostly. Of course it will still have some old 2000s quirks to it. Though my brother wouldn't admit it, I think this is where his spiritual interests came from. Sort of like the first domino in rediscovering a heritage we lost.

Also the twist at the end. Pristine. Beautiful. You're giving me a lot of movies to rewatch from my childhood these last few weeks! Thank you kindly!

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ALL OF IT, YES! I too was absolutely mesmerized as a youngin'. 🤩

Ooooo, spiritual interests?? A lost heritage??? Do tell. 🤓

I am in love with the ending. It is so twisted and dark. Makes you shudder.

Oh, no - thank YOU! I'm glad we can bond over nostalgic movie experiences. ✨

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Well it's interesting really because he and I took really different paths in terms of religion.

For background: Our mother is Jewish and our father is methodist, but our father comes from a line of freed slaves out of Mississippi as far back as we know.

The thing I find interesting is I don't find myself to particularly spiritual but I love learning about it - I take on a concept I heard a religious scholar describe as "pedestrianism" - the act of learning the tenets or morals of a religion and applying the things you find meaningful to your every day life. whereas my brother is what I would call hyperspiritual. He takes all faiths he learns about and integrates them into his own practice. It's been a running thing every year in December where he asks me what I want for "Christmas-Hanukkah-Kwanza-solstice" it seems like every time he asks me, he adds a new thing on! I think some people would find this sort of strange or think its a joke, but it makes sense to me and he means it in earnest. We have a diverse history both in our heritage and in our familial religious practices.

When we watched Skeleton Key growing up, I remember him being immediately interested in Hoodoo and lesser known occult practices that weren't fully explored where we live in the north but are common place in the south. To this day he'll still invoke the religious traditions and take any chance he can to talk about them and paint them (he's an artist). I find it admirable personally. I think the striking difference between us is how deep his faith runs. Where I'll say "that's interesting" and remember the practices as an interesting concept that can inform my choices, he takes it and figures out how to sincerely integrate it into his current beliefs and faith.

Anyways, all that is a long winded way to say, my brother is a fascinating guy with a lot going on!

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Oh my gosh, this is incredible. Thank you so SO much for sharing all of that. ✨

I am big, if you couldn't tell from this post lol, on "fringe" religions. My grandmother was a conjurer/folk medicine woman from Mexico. So I know the feeling of trying to excavate one's heritage. 😌 But if I just had money to throw around, I would consider getting a comparative religions degree. 🤓 Kind of like your brother, I also just "add" everything together because I personally don't see anything in conflict. I know a lot of other religious folks do see a problem with that. But I don't. So I'm a researcher but also a practitioner.

I write a lot about my grandmother and what it was like growing up in a folk religion over at my other newsletter, if you are interested. ✌🏼

But again, incredible. THANK YOU FOR READING AND LEAVING SUCH WONDERFUL COMMENTS!🙏🏼

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I think it's a wonderful way to practice spiritualism and I admire that you do it too!

I remember reading your posts about your grandmother! It was such a fantastic read, thank you for sharing that here! I think I only read the first 2 parts all those months ago, so I need to go through and check out the rest!

Anyways, thanks for the fantastic conversation as always, Maribel! 🤙🏽

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Awww thanks!! 😊

Yes, as always!! 🙏🏼

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