Good Voodoo

I'll have lots of new stuff over the next few days, because I've been consuming horror at an accelerated rate lately. First off is my review of Skeleton Key. I'll admit up front on this one that I really think scary movies dealing with voodoo are creepy, so I was looking forward to this movie. Still, expectations can cut the other way: it's easier to be let down when your expectations are high. I'm glad to report the Skeleton Key was not a letdown. In fact, it was actually pretty surprising: good set up, excellent use of spooky old pictures, and a great surprise ending. Kate Hudson was solid and did a good job of avoiding overacting.

I'm rating this one as a three star horror movie: a solid effort, good script and actors, not too much silliness. It's certainly not anything startingly new or a new addition to the horror canon, but you could do a lot worse in renting a scary movie.

By the way, if you like reading about voodoo and zombies, an excellent non-fiction account of this is The Serpent and the Rainbow. This is the story of the author's attempt to discover the pharmacological truth behind the zombie phenomenon. Along the way, he reveals some fascinating tidbits about native use of hallucinogenic drugs in Central and South America. Good stuff.