The Legend of Lucy Keyes (2006)

Masterful Movie

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Possible Spoilers ahead………….I like ghost films; I find them more frightening than horror films as I, like most people, have had supernatural experiences and do not have to suspend disbelief too much as I must with horror films.Sadly, I was disappointed with this one and had to force myself to watch it until the end (doing the ironing helped!).The story of Lucy Keyes, as related in the film, is a nice bit of local folklore but it is not even remotely frightening. Consequently, the film is not frightening because…where is the menace coming from? Some people would hear the ghost of the 18th century mother calling Lucy! Lucy! during the night, and the 21st century mother, whilst taking a break from her repetitive tossing & turning, once caught a glimpse of her ghost; but nothing was done with this glimpse nor did it develop the film at all. The ghosts were almost incidental apart from the next door neighbour using smelly devices to keep the ghost away. Finding a hidden mural is an old and effective device, however, the director did nothing with the mural that was found under the wallpaper; it should have revealed a clue or added to the story, rather than merely remaining as background scenery in the room or an occasional talking point.This film is a catalogue of wasted opportunities to add suspense and a sense of mounting fright. Instead the viewer is treated to almost 90 interminable minutes of the ethics of wind turbines and a boringly unstable mother having the same dream over and over while doing some research on the side and eventually wandering through the woods at night calling Lucy! Lucy! in imitation of the mother of Lucy Keyes! I understand that both mothers had a dead child and the modern mother could empathise with the ghost mother, and that she would be afraid that her own Lucy would also disappear. Unfortunately, she just came across as paranoid with a constant snappy attitude towards her husband.So, to sum up; nothing interesting happens for 90 minutes and there is not one single scare or suspenseful moment in the entire film!!!!Incidentally, the crypt appeared to have dry-stone walls; dry-stone walls do not remain intact for 200 years without maintenance, so I think Lucy's remains would have been found at least 150 years earlier!

It is never a good sign when the audience laughs at a film's most dramatic moments - and it happened several times during the screening that I attended of this film.While the film is based on a genuine local legend, the director's strict adherence "this is exactly how it happened" sometimes detracts from the story, since he seems unable to resist stuffing _Lucy Keyes_ with every possible detail of the legend and the current happenings in the town, regardless of whether or not it contributes to the plot. This leads to a lot of loose ends that are never satisfactorily tied together. Overacting, inconsistent tone and shoddy character development plague this film. There are so many plot points that are introduced as big moments but then never play out to any significance that I left the theater extremely irritated by _Lucy Keyes_.

I caught this film last night and was very pleasantly surprised. Other reviewers have covered the basic plot, so I won't bother here. I have to say that I was most impressed by the little girl who played contemporary Lucy. That tot can act! She was cute without being cutesy, and solid without being wooden or robotic, as some child actors can be.It was fun to see Jamie Donnelly on screen again. Although she has changed quite a lot from her Grease days, the voice and the eyes are still the same. Living in a small (pop. 3000) town myself, I found myself chuckling about the rather clichéd "town eccentric" character Donnelly played and thinking to myself, "Why OF COURSE there's a town eccentric!" But her character was central to the plot and she turned out to be more than I expected.I recommend this film for those who want a spooky yarn without all the slash-and-gore contemporary film makers seem to think all ghostly tales must have. It does have some bloody moments, but compared to most of "Let's dismember people" films being made today, they're not too bad.

Being based on a true disappearance, I think the movie did justice to the mystery from the 1700s. For an independent film, it had a lot less gore than most fright flicks and it is to be commended for that. Expanding the tale to solve the mystery may have been too ambitious a project for the director. However, I find the bittersweet ending to have been well thought out and fairly executed. I think the fear that the Keyes descendant felt should have been explored more in the script, but perhaps explanation for that was left on the editing floor. All in all, I felt it was a decent attempt at solving a centuries-old mystery in a manner that unfortunately, sadly still occurs in this day and age.