Notable Cast: Terrence Howard, Valery M. Ortiz, Cuba
Gooding Jr, Udo Kier, Appy Pratt, Louis Mandylor, Michelle Jubilee Gonzalez,
Clifton Powell, Ariana Deppe, Michelle Wang, Sally Kirkland
Niche entertainment services will always have content that
wouldn’t make it anywhere else. Hallmark often weaves a tale of the city girl
who finds herself (and a new love interest) in a small town, usually with a dog
and hot chocolate, and she will inevitably fall into every predictable trap on
her way to rediscovering her traditional values. Crunchyroll has some anime
that might make even the most seasoned anime lover roll their eyes, and the NBA
has the modern slam dunk contest. All these specialty services offer audiences
the opportunity to find hidden gems, a pursuit that sometimes pans out and
sometimes not.
Shudder is no different, except that the horror community is
particularly divisive, potentially even more than diehard NBA fans, which makes
finding gold a subjective and challenging task. I wish I could say that I was
writing today about a story of finding gold, but alas, I am not. Skeletons
in the Closet has every signature failing of a Hallmark movie but as a
horror feature. Let me say that I REALLY wanted to like this. I tried very hard
to give it time, if only for its star-laden cast, but it never materialized
into anything worth watching.