
Valentina’s parent’s attitude is more uninviting and obnoxious rather than having a committed and heartwarming approach. Director Asif Akbar’s Skeletons in the Closet is driven by a stern cast committed to the project and with such robust characters and talent the reception of the film becomes somewhat disappointing as the entire film is jumbled rather than jumpy.
Nonetheless, Skeletons in the Closet cannot be favored as a straightforward walk in the park for the viewer. First and foremost, the visuals claim to be portraying a family instilled in chaos, unique, and yet remains quite passive in focus when it comes to capturing detail among other elements of the film that makes it a horror picture. It appears to be what Skeletons in the Closet has been set up to be, but what Asif Akbar hoped to achieve in the first place remains a mystery.
Valentina (portrayed by Valery M. Ortiz) is a case study of someone who knows what it is like to be under the influence of something unrelenting for years. According to her, it feels as if it were a curse or a dark gift, ever since she was a child. She suffers the deaths of family members one by only has her daughter and husband for company, but they too fall into a struggle when her daughter Jenny (played by Appy Pratt) gets diagnosed with a difficult disease and financial concerns begin overwhelming. Valentina loses her trust in her faith and considers the possibility of doing something that should never be done.
Of the genres the movie Skeletons in the Closet could fall into, the one that comes first is horror – it is a religious horror movie, as it says in the very first dialogues. But for a section of its second act, it seems to forget that little detail choosing instead to lean much more heavily on gangster flick clichés, there’s some dodgy money deal, some background goons, and a motif about ‘fishing’ that borders on ridiculous. It’s such a strange turn of events in a film full of them, but this one brings the film off the rails in a way that it never really recovers from.
Seen in a different light Andres as played by Cuba Gooding Jr. as Mark’s ex-con brother this whole ‘gangster’ subplot is also totally gratuitous for the horror part of this horror movie. It’s not like Mark didn’t get enough character development already. It might as well have been removed altogether without affecting the core of the film. In fact, there are broader narrative arcs in Akbar’s film that feel clumsy and, to be quite blunt may even be termed sloppy. It’s almost like a poorly made soup that had way too many chefs alter the recipe or a focus group edit that left the content so bland that building tension and a sense of satisfaction from the cheap scares is not possible.
It’s sometimes hard to figure out what’s going on in the plot and character motivations are so jumbled as to even be nonexistent at some points, the script is very poorly written with obnoxious characters, and the acting varies from somewhat dull to completely over the top, in a completely nonsensical manner. It’s also quite a compelling film to watch in the end. There’s also a very well-worked-out idea behind it all – not groundbreaking but certainly the script and ideas could have been much improved if the direction was a little more brutal.
Skeletons in the Closet will start streaming on Shudder on February 9, 2024. Make sure to check our other reviews of new releases within the subgenre of religious horror: Thine Ears Shall Bleed, Deliver Us, The Devil’s Bath, The Exorcism (2024), The Exorcist: Believer, The Last Rite, The Pope’s Exorcist and Prey for the Devil!
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