Skeletons in the Closet

I hate to be overwhelmingly negative when it comes to my reviews, but unfortunately I don't have much positive to say about this one... so I'll try to keep it brief.

From the moment it started till the final scene I almost consistently wanted to turn it off. The script was poorly written and felt juvenile. The editing and CGI were hokey and surprisingly low quality. This movie was almost the antithesis of atmospheric and there was practically nothing scary throughout. Many scenes were over lit and riddled with stagnant wide shots making it feel very amateurish. Stylistically it was just all wrong.

The story was nothing particularly engaging or original either, full of unnecessary and inconsequential aspects such as the scarecrow, the mobsters and many others. The general quality of the picture was crisp and nice which often times was beneficial, yet at other points really detracted from any semblance of atmosphere. I didn't even realize that the acting was really quite good until about halfway through because even the best acting can be hidden under poor angles, clunky editing and a bad script.

There were some really solid performances here, particularly from the mom, her father, her husband and the husband's brother. It is obvious that they used the majority of their budget on casting and let other things suffer because of it.

I do not like to and very rarely give out 2s. I really wanted to round up to at least 3 with this one for the acting, but unfortunately it was too much of an overwhelmingly negative experience on multiple fronts. 2.5 rounding down to a 2, would not recommend.

Without ever having heard about this 2024 horror movie titled "Skeletons in the Closet" from director Asif Akbar, of course I opted to sit down and watch it, given my love and fascination of the horror genre. And sitting down with zero expectations here, there was plenty of room for director Asif Akbar to impress me.

Ugh, the storyline was all over the place and nowhere all at once. It felt like writers Joshua A. Cohen, Terrence Howard, Mira Pak Howard and Koji Steven Sakai were writing stories independently of one another without talking together at all, then collectively handing in four scripts for director Asif Akbar to try to piece together like a puzzle to form a coherent storyline and make a movie. It just didn't work.

I have to say that I found the storyline in the movie to be really bad. The stories of Mark (played by Terrence Howard) and Valentina (played by Valery M. Ortiz) just didn't really have anything to do with one another. It was like watching two different movies layered over one another, with neither of them making much sense as it was befuddled by the other storyline.

There are so many things in the movie that serves the narrative absolutely no purpose, such as the scarecrow scene and the scene with the loanshark.

The movie actually has good cast ensemble, with the likes of Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Louis Mandylor and Udo Kier, to mention the most recognizable of the actors and actresses that participated in the movie.

Most of the times when they cut from one scene to another, the cut was accompanied by a loud noise and a flash of color. Going for some cheap jump scares, and it just grew tiring rather early on in the movie, and yet it continued on throughout the entire movie.

Yeah, "Skeletons in the Closet" was a swing and a miss of a movie, and I was struggling to sit through it, coming very close to giving up entirely around 55 minutes into the boredom that was the storyline in the movie. But I endured and sucked it up, soldiering on and actually finishing the movie. Was I impressed by "Skeletons in the Closet"? Not even remotely.

If you enjoy horror movies, do yourself a favor and don't waste 92 minutes of your life sitting through this.

My rating of "Skeletons in the Closet" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.

Although the actors were not A listers they were at least good actors that I am familiar with. I like the premise they started out with, IF I have it right. Hard to know as it was such a MESS!!

The production of putting it all together was a disaster. Very low budget. The script was weird or was it the editing that made it weird?

I did not find it scary in the least because I was so busy trying to figure out what was going on from minute to minute. It was a real chore to watch this movie. I kept watching and rewinding to see if there was something I missed but I am still not sure exactly what happened. I will have to go read up on the plot somewhere.

Only watch if you are into train wrecks. Oh how fall poor Cuba Gooding jr has fallen.

Great actors. Horrible director and script. Sallie Kirkland another pro, is so smooth. Horrible script! Poor Terrence Howard brings authenticity to this awful project. I can never get enough Cuba Gooding,jr so at least there is that.

Listen, if you have accomplished actors like this, take advantage! These 3 actors could have elevated the movie with just a little more work on the script. Finally, we have an awesome Udo Kerr. He's like the cherry on top. This could have been at least mediocre. Nope. What a waste of incredible talent.

SHUDDER: Try again. This time don't green light it until you're given a decent treatment.

I actually heard about this movie awhile back when it was about to be released, and I forgot to follow up on it. I remember taking an interest in it because of the cast. Well, my interest is no longer; I'll pass on this one. It seems as if this was so bad that they felt it was better to let the movie itself sit in the closet.

What is funny is that there are a bunch of low ratings on here, and then you have the one 10/10 rating that sticks out like a sore thumb. It's not hard to figure out that the person is connected to this production in some way; perhaps it's the director who used words like stellar performances, masterfully crafted, chilling horror, and well-layered story. This one really made me laugh-"a spine-chilling cinematic experience."😆 And then it comes in at a 3.0/10 rating. Unbelievable.