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Film: Skeletons in the Closet
Year: 2024
Director: Asif Akbar
Writers: Joshua A. Cohen, Terrence Howard, Mira Pak Howard and Koji Steven Sakai
Starring: Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Udo Kier
Review:
This is a movie that I saw an ad for when it hit Shudder. I saw that it was a 2024 release and featured Terrence Howard as well as Cuba Gooding Jr. and Udo Kier. This was then selected for Black appreciation due to Howard and Gooding. I didn’t even realize that the former helped co-write this. It also appears that his ex-wife helped with the writing in a capacity so it doubles as Women appreciation as well.
Synopsis: haunted by a malevolent spirit since childhood, a desperate mother allows herself to become possessed to save the life of her terminally ill daughter.
We start this off with a cute scene where Mark (Terrence Howard) is getting ready and prepped to ask for a raise at work by his wife, Valentina (Valery M. Ortiz). Watching through the crack of the bedroom door is Jenny (Appy Pratt). Valentina goes downstairs and is spooked when she sees an entity behind Jenny while she’s looking in their fishtank. She is frozen when Mark comes down and asks what is wrong. I will say here that she has been haunted by this spirit since she was a child.
Things on this day don’t go as planned though. Mark learns that this meeting with his boss isn’t about getting a raise or a promotion. The economy is bad and he’s been let go. He doesn’t know what to do so he goes to the local bar to meet his brother, Andres (Gooding). He is fresh out of prison and trying to get back on his feet. There is something else that Valentina learns. Jenny’s cancer is back and it’s spread to her brain. Another blow is that their insurance didn’t cover what they thought so they need to pay for the treatment before it can be started.
Mark decided to get Jenny a dog since he is feeling generous. He then learns about the diagnosis. He doesn’t have the heart to tell his wife about what happened at work. After telling Andres, he does have a risky way to get the money. There is a local gangster, Miguel (Reno Reyes). He isn’t a guy you want to owe money to. He can’t even off the full amount which complicates things further.
Now there is also a supernatural angle here. Valentina goes to see Father Francisco (Clifton Powell), who she’s known since she was a girl. Valentina doesn’t remember an incident that involved her mother, Celia (Michelle Jubilee Gonzalez), and father, Santeros (Louis Mandylor). There is also this entity of Santa Muerte (JT Tomangi).
Mark also seeks out a supernatural way to help Jenny. This leads her to Madam Futura (Sally Kirkland) who reads fortunes. She sees there is a dark entity following this family. She can’t help though. She does introduce him and Valentina to Luc (Udo Kier). Not everything is as it seems though and the truth behind these individuals can be more complicated than what we see.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that I thought this had interesting elements in the front end that sucked me in. I don’t think this stuck the landing with them, but the cast was another element that intrigued me since we have good actors here.
Now that I’ve said that let’s get into what I like here. We are seeing the fringe aspects to the Catholic religion. I’m at least assuming it is Catholic since this is in the America Southwest. Being close to Mexico, I know that version of Christianity is popular. We are seeing how it incorporates their own saints and religious figures like Santa Muerte. I even like that Andres became a believer in prison and that helped him get through. We are seeing this entity, which is creepy. We are getting a modern gothic take though where ghosts and this spooky figure might not be evil. They could be there to warn and even help at times.
Sticking with that idea, I do also like that religion isn’t looked at negatively here. This isn’t necessarily the norm today. I’ll state here that I’m an atheist. I do love it when religion is looked at in a critical light, but I also can see that it does help people who are true believers. There is an element here where a demon might be interjecting itself into this family’s life as well. Madam Futura tells them that if they offer enough, then their problems could be cleared. I do think that the synopsis is misleading. An element here is saying that Valentina becomes possessed. That isn’t the case. There is an entity that is following her and it does come into play as things get resolved. Things work out for the family, but when the debt needs to be paid, that is where an important decision needs to be made. I do like that this isn’t the first time this family has had a similar agreement. That was a fun full circle concept.
I do have negatives here though. I’ll shift over to filmmaking. This has a lower budget look to how it is shot. I’m assuming that is partially due to being digital. It just doesn’t have the same look as other movies. I won’t hold that against this though. The cinematography was fine to frame things. My first negative is coming with effects. The practical ones were good when we got them. There is a lot of CGI effects here and that doesn’t hold up for me. I’d also say that pacing was another issue. I just struggled to keep my interest here. I’m not fully sure what the problem was there. This just lost me during the second act and I never came back around to caring. I do think part of that is there is a large convenience factor. It is interesting as I thought that was a good touch with ritual. The problem was that the stakes seemed to go away and I no longer cared. We needed more of the problems to stick around in my opinion to work better.
Next then will be the acting. Like I said earlier, we have an interesting ensemble cast here. I found it interesting to see Howard and Gooding. Neither of them are great in their performances. There is something off about them both where we are getting the potential that I know they can live up to. Kier was good in his lesser role along with Mandylor. The best performance for me was from Ortiz. I thought she brought the emotion and carried the tension to see what would happen. Gonzalez also has a good look for the role she was needed in. Powell, Pratt, Kirkland, Tomangi and the rest of the cast was fine. No one necessarily stands out either.
In conclusion, this one is fine. There were things that pulled me in and I just don’t think it was executed properly. The use of the fringe version of Christianity here was good. It is a using lore that I’m not overly familiar with like Santa Muerte so I did like that. We have a good cast here, but they don’t bring the caliber of performance I’d expect. Special credit though to Ortiz and Kier though. The filmmaking aspects weren’t bad. I’d say that cinematography was fine. There was a pacing issue and the CGI doesn’t hold up either. Not one that I’d necessarily recommend. It just didn’t work for me and I’d struggle to say that this one should be seen.
My Rating: 4.5 out of 10