Our review of some of the films set in New Orleans.

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Easy Rider 

So we get in there, and I’m explaining the film to him and asking him for money to make the movie, and he says, “You’re so passionate about this. I’ll tell you what: I’m going to give you the money.” And I’m like, “Wow.” But then he says, “All you have to do is levitate, right now, in front of me.” - Dennis Hopper

 Synopsis: Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, essentially playing themselves, make a drug deal in Mexico and use the ensuing money to fund their cross-country search for the American Dream. After collecting their money in LA, they ride to New Orleans, where they pick up prostitutes and drop acid in St. Louis #1. All shot on location, during Mardi Gras. Eventually they head to Florida, ostensibly to retire and live out the hippy ideal, only to be shot and killed by rednecks on a lonely Louisiana highway. THE DEATH OF THE AMERICAN DREAM. 

What They Get Right: Street filming of Mardi Gras in 1969. Reasons never to drop acid in a cemetery. Jack Nicholson in one of his first big roles as an alcoholic ACLU lawyer. Crazy jump cuts. Idealism of the 1960's crashing up against realities of capitalism and militarism. The birth of the "New Hollywood." 

What They Screw Up: Was there really a brothel in New Orleans of chicly dressed white chicks in 1969?.........probably. 

Further Watching:

*This clip is in Spanish....which kind of makes it better. 

The Skeleton Key

"In the real world, motorists get their gas at shiny 24-hour travel plazas, many of them incorporating Taco Bells and sales on the latest cassettes by Jeff Foxworthy. Not in horror movies, where the Chainsaw Family lurks in the shadows behind the cash register and cackles unwholesomely about newcomers."

Roger Ebert

Synopsis: A New Orleans hospice aide takes a position as caregiver at a plantation in Terrebonne Parish, taking care of the mute-by-stroke husband of the estate's proprietor. Spookiness and "hoodoo" ensues, and soon, Kate Hudson is trapped inside Gena Rowland's body, and the sprits of plantation workers seeking revenge are allowed to live on indefinitely. 

What They Get Right: Little to nothing

What They Screw Up: The depiction of all indigenous Louisiana religions as black magic. The poor white girl trapped by evil black people trope. The ideal that everyone who lives in the parish is old plantation money or a hick. All that to say, most things. 

If you must, futher watching: