A man who specialises in debunking paranormal occurrences checks into the fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel. Soon after settling in, he confronts genuine terror.
Director:
Mikael Håfström
Stars:
John Cusack,
Samuel L. Jackson,
Mary McCormack
A young hospice worker helping care for an invalid who lives in a remote mansion in the Louisiana bayous finds herself caught in the middle of morbid happenings centered around a group of Hoodoo practitioners.Written by
Ed
At the opening of this movie, the book that Caroline (Kate Hudson) is reading to the hospice patient is Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island". Toward the beginning of that work, Jim Hawkins is caring for the elderly Billy Bones after the man had a stroke. Caroline begins her ordeal in the same way: taking care of the elderly Ben Devereaux (Sir John Hurt) post-stroke. See more »
Goofs
Toward the beginning of the movie, Caroline takes a shower and goes to sleep. She is awoken by Ben crawling on the roof and goes outside to save him. The rain makes her faces drip mascara, which she never had time to put on since her shower. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Caroline Ellis:
[reading from Treasure Island]
I lost no time, of course, in telling my mother all that I knew, and we saw ourselves at once in a difficult and dangerous position. Something must speedily be resolved upon, and it occurred to us at last to go forth together and seek help in the neighboring hamlet. No sooner said than done. Bare-headed as we were, we ran out at once into the gathering evening and the frosty fog. The hamlet lay not many hundred yards away, though out of view on the ...
[...] See more »
Death Letter
Written by Johnny Farmer
Performed by Johnny Farmer
Courtesy of Fat Possum Records, Inc. and Big Legal Mess, LLC
By Arrangement with Wixen Music See more »
After a slightly slow start, 'Skeleton Key' develops into an original, evocative and at times genuinely scary occult thriller so Ehren Kruger has redeemed himself after his truly wretched script for 'Ring 2' . I am not going into spoilers, which would be extremely destructive for a film of this kind but there are very clever character shifts, achieving a wonderful tension lock for the last 40 minutes or so mainly because all the performances are so good. The use of props and flash-backs is also wonderfully rich. The setting is contemporary New Orleans and its surrounds but this is mythical south and none the worse for that. The mix of influences includes 'Turn of the Screw', 'Rosemary's Baby' 'Burn Witch Burn and a few other classics but that is to give nothing away for it absorbs them into something quite new. My only criticism would be there is something a little confined about the movie--especially at its start-- but its style and pace and excitement utilise this triumphantly by the end.
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After a slightly slow start, 'Skeleton Key' develops into an original, evocative and at times genuinely scary occult thriller so Ehren Kruger has redeemed himself after his truly wretched script for 'Ring 2' . I am not going into spoilers, which would be extremely destructive for a film of this kind but there are very clever character shifts, achieving a wonderful tension lock for the last 40 minutes or so mainly because all the performances are so good. The use of props and flash-backs is also wonderfully rich. The setting is contemporary New Orleans and its surrounds but this is mythical south and none the worse for that. The mix of influences includes 'Turn of the Screw', 'Rosemary's Baby' 'Burn Witch Burn and a few other classics but that is to give nothing away for it absorbs them into something quite new. My only criticism would be there is something a little confined about the movie--especially at its start-- but its style and pace and excitement utilise this triumphantly by the end.