I went to the movies over the weekend. The summer movie season in Korea is quiet uninteresting this year. By default, I went to check out a movie titled “The Skeleton Key.”

The story was boiler plate summer horror plot: Old house in the swamps of Louisiana. Creepy goings on. Mysterious and spooky black folk. A healthy dose of Hoodoo. And a few rather predictable plot twists.

It wasn’t a bad film. It provided a good way to kill a couple of hours. That having been said, this is one of, if not the only, movie I can think of where the soundtrack totally eclipsed the movie.

The soundtrack was laden very heavily with the blues. Old blues. Among the gems of the soundtrack that I could pick out were:

Robert Johnson’s “Come on in my Kitchen”
MIssissippi Fred McDowell’s “61 Highway Blues”
Some incredible slidework from Johnny Farmer, including “Death Letter”

The orchestration was typical horror at times, but a lot of it was single note acoustic and electric slide guitar work.

The only thing that struck me as odd was the inclusion of “Iko Iko” by The Dixie Cups at several points in the movie.

It was good to hear the old blues used in such prominence in a movie. During the past week I have had several discussions with people regarding the soundtrack to the movie. That has lead to longer conversations and long listening sessions with people who have never heard real blues music. I have really enjoyed sharing my love of the blues with new listeners.

I recommend seeing the movie, if for no other reason that to hear how the blues was intricately woven into the fabric of the movie.