The Skeleton Key

Review by

Lucinda

 Director:
Iain Softley

Writer (WGA):
Ehren Kruger

Release Date:
12 August 2005 (USA)
Genre:
Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:
It can open any door.

Plot:
A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.




Kate Hudson ... Caroline Ellis

Gena Rowlands ... Violet Devereaux

John Hurt ... Ben Devereaux

Peter Sarsgaard ... Luke Marshall



Caroline (Kate Hudson) is a twenty-five-year-old hospice worker who cares for the ailing and the elderly, a job designed to atone for her own mistake for ignoring her dying father in the past, when she had been a rock 'n' roll manager.

After her latest charge passes away, Caroline takes a job in Louisiana, caring for Ben (John Hurt), a stroke-victim who is bed-ridden and cannot speak. But Caroline becomes suspicious of the house, and Ben's cold wife, Violet (Gena Rowlands) only adds to the creepy atmosphere. After acquiring a skeleton key, Caroline makes her way into a secret room within the attic where she discovers hair, blood, bones, spells, and other instruments for practicing hoodoo. Violet says she has never been in the secret room, but that the items probably belonged to the original owners' two house workers, who practiced black magic and were lynched as a result. Noting that Ben had his stroke in the attic after entering the room, Caroline is determined to unlock the secrets of the house, and rescue Ben from the horrors that hold him captive within.



I loved the movie. Everything about it was great! It wasn't too scary, like it wasn't the type of movie that made your heart race, but it made up for it in the story line. It kept me guessing to that was going to happen next and who was trying to do what. Then at the end it totally did the opposite of what I thought was going to happen, but it was great. It most definitely makes you think twice about not believing in black magic and other things.

So on my scale from 1-10 I give this movie an 8.


 newshound,

Lucinda is a columnist/critic for NOCS & can be reached by email at

luci@nightmareonchatstreet.com