- Director:
Wayne Powers - AMG Rating:
- Genre: Thriller
- Movie Type: Psychological Thriller
- Themes: Haunted By the Past
- Main Cast: Gordon Clapp, Schuyler Fisk, Treat Williams, Linda Hamilton, Jonathan Jackson
- Release Year: 2000
- Country: US
- Run Time: 86 minutes
- MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Single father Will Reed (Treat Williams) and his teenaged son Seth (Jonathan Jackson) have increasingly uncomfortable conflicts that go beyond the usual coming-of-age difficulties. Seth has grown reclusive and mysterious as his father does his best to communicate with him. Seth's binge drinking and drug use get him in trouble with his girlfriend Robin (Schuyler Fisk) and her family, and his unwelcome advances on Tina (Linda Hamilton), a co-worker of Will's who has a crush on Will, make things even more unsettling. Will is hardly prepared for what comes next: Seth begins giving his father items of clothing as gifts -- items that may be evidence of a series of murders in their small New Hampshire town. Each time Will confronts Seth with the evidence, a very calm Seth has an innocent answer. Even the police think Will is going too far. Is Seth a serial killer, or is Will losing his mind?~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
Review
Skeletons in the Closet is just good enough to keep viewers from hitting the eject button each time they think the script has run out of gas. Just when the family melodrama threatens to boil over, a new element of suspense pops up, creating fresh interest. It makes for a frustrating evening of viewing; it would have been simpler if the film was just that much worse, then viewers could eject it and put in that Hitchcock thriller they've been intending to see again. Treat Williams, who looks here exactly like an older version of Robert Sean Leonard (eerie, really), and gothically creepy Jonathan Jackson are appropriately uncomfortable with each other, and the story twists just enough to keep viewers guessing until the end. Director Wayne Powers overcomes the limitations of his $1.5 million budget and 19-day shooting schedule by keeping things moving. It's difficult to see how, given those limitations, Skeletons could have been better. But it could have been a whole lot worse.~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
Cast
- Treat Williams
- Linda Hamilton
Jonathan Jackson
