the skeleton key

Promotional Poster Directed by Iain Softley Produced by Iain Softley

Daniel Bobker

Michael Shamberg

Stacey Sher Written by Ehren Kruger Starring Kate Hudson

Gena Rowlands

Peter Sarsgaard

John Hurt

Joy Bryant Music by Ed Shearmur Cinematography Dan Mindel Editing by Joe Hutshing Distributed by Universal Pictures Release date(s) July 29, 2005

August 12, 2005 Running time 104 min. Country USA Language English For other uses, see Skeleton key (disambiguation).

The Skeleton Key is a 2005 horror-suspense film released in the UK on 22 July and in the USA on August 12. It is set in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana and has a cast led by Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands, and John Hurt in an original screenplay by Ehren Kruger, directed by Iain Softley. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 The setting in reality 4 Notes 5 External links //

Plot

Caroline Ellis (played by Kate Hudson) is a New Orleans hospital aide from Hoboken, New Jersey, who quits her unsatisfying nursing job in the city to take a position as a private hospice caregiver at an isolated plantation house deep in the bayous of southern Louisiana's eerie, enchanting Terrebonne Parish. The lady of the house, Violet Deveraux (played by Gena Rowlands) is a diffident, old-fashioned Southern matron in need of help for her husband Ben (played by John Hurt), a severely disabled stroke victim who is expected to die soon.

Violet gives Caroline a skeleton key to open every room in the house, and Caroline soon finds the mansion has a dark past. Finding her way into a secret room in the attic, Caroline discovers voodoo dolls, a book of spells, potion jars, and other instruments of magic. Violet tells Caroline that the room belonged to two black servants who had worked at the house in the 1920s. Mama Cecile (Jeryl Prescott) and her husband, Papa Justify (Ron McCall) were, in their day, renowned practitioners of hoodoo, a form of Afro-Caribbean folk magic. But to their white employers, they were nothing more than servants, and Justify and Cecile were lynched when it was discovered that they were performing spells with the children of the house owners. Caroline dismisses Violet's fear of Justify and Cecile's ghosts dwelling in the house as superstition, but more strange events occur, piquing her curiosity about the obscure (to her) swamp religions and their relationship to the physical condition of Ben, whom she has become determined to save and restore to health.

Caroline, after realizing that Violet is working harmful spells on Ben, seeks the help of the young lawyer Luke Marshall (played by Peter Sarsgaard) hired to rewrite Violet and Ben's wills. While in Luke's house, Caroline discovers clues leading to the revelation that Luke is in fact assisting Violet. Just as Caroline is about to act, Luke captures her, ties her up and gags her and takes her back to the manor.

Caroline is held captive, but manages to get free and "rig" (roughly, enchant) the house with brick