A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.
- Awards
- 5 nominations
Videos2
Fahnlohnee R. Harris
- Hallieas Hallie
- (as Fahnlohnee Harris)
Trula M. Marcus
- Nurse Trulaas Nurse Trula
- (as Trula Marcus)
Thomas Uskali
- Robertson Thorpeas Robertson Thorpe
- (as Tom Uskali)
Jeryl Prescott
- Mama Cecileas Mama Cecile
- (as Jeryl Prescott Sales)
- Director
- Writer
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
- All cast & crew
Storyline
Nurse Caroline Ellis quits her job to take care of elderly Ben Devereux who had a stroke and can't talk. When she gets to his house in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, she meets Ben's wife Violet, who acts suspicious and creepy. The family's lawyer, Luke Marshall, convinces Caroline to stay. She goes to the attic and finds a secret room there full of spells, hair, and bones used to practice Hoodoo, but Violet says she has never seen this secret room. Caroline wants to help Ben, thinking that Violet has put a spell on him. She knows Hoodoo can't hurt someone who doesn't believe in it. Can Caroline save Ben, or will she end up being the one who needs to be saved? —amberbrigman
- Taglines
- It can open any door.
- Genres
- Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
- Rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing images, some partial nudity and thematic material
- Parents guide
Did you know
- TriviaThe swamp behind the Devereaux house was created with CGI effects. The actual house used in this movie, Felicity Plantation, is situated inland in St. James Parish, and is surrounded by farmland. The fictional Devereaux house was situated in Terrebonne Parish, which is coastal and swampy.
- GoofsViolet rides up in the elevator when all power is out.
- Quotes
Violet Devereaux: Child, I believe you broke my legs.
- Crazy creditsThere are no opening credits.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Making of 'the Skeleton Key' (2005)
- SoundtracksDo Whatcha Wanna
Written by Keith Frazier, Philip Frazier and Kermit Ruffins
Performed by ReBirth Brass Band (as The Rebirth Brass Band)
Top review
They Do that Hoodoo that they Do so...eh, Relatively Well
Horror movies have become a dime a dozen in the past few years. The watchable ones seem to fall into two categories of late: misguided psychological thrillers headlined by a consummate actress (witness Naomi Watts in "The Ring 2" or Jennifer Connelly in "Dark Water") or over the top slasher/gore-fests with serious kitsch value (witness Romero's enjoyable zombie flick "Land of the Dead" or Rob Zombie's sadistic "Devil's Rejects"). All of the rest have pretty much been unbearable cliché-ridden hack jobs ("White Noise," "Darkness Falls," etc...)
Oddly enough, "The Skeleton Key" doesn't fall into any of these categories and it comes across as a breath of fresh air, an old-fashioned throwback to the traditional Gothic mystery thriller, where a pretty female outsider (Kate Hudson acquitting herself rather nicely here as the hospice nurse traveling deep into the Bayou to care for an apparent stroke victim) moves into a big old house/castle that just might be haunted. The director and screenwriter start things slowly, and do a nice job of creating a realistic setting before letting all the mumbo-jumbo slowly and effectively creep in. Gena Rowlands and John Hurt (immobile and mute for most of the film) are fairly good in their respective roles as the married couple with more than just skeletons in their closets. We've seen this stuff all before, but it's done fairly well here with no sense of flash or pretensions, and as silly (and potentially offensive) as all this Hoodoo in the Bayou stuff is, the audience is treated to a twist ending that makes perfect sense in the context we have been given. This isn't a twist ending for twisting sake, but a fitting conclusion to the story.
"The Skeleton Key" tries to remind people of classics like "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Others." It may not ultimately hold a candle to those films, but it's a very entertaining way to spend a few hours.
Oddly enough, "The Skeleton Key" doesn't fall into any of these categories and it comes across as a breath of fresh air, an old-fashioned throwback to the traditional Gothic mystery thriller, where a pretty female outsider (Kate Hudson acquitting herself rather nicely here as the hospice nurse traveling deep into the Bayou to care for an apparent stroke victim) moves into a big old house/castle that just might be haunted. The director and screenwriter start things slowly, and do a nice job of creating a realistic setting before letting all the mumbo-jumbo slowly and effectively creep in. Gena Rowlands and John Hurt (immobile and mute for most of the film) are fairly good in their respective roles as the married couple with more than just skeletons in their closets. We've seen this stuff all before, but it's done fairly well here with no sense of flash or pretensions, and as silly (and potentially offensive) as all this Hoodoo in the Bayou stuff is, the audience is treated to a twist ending that makes perfect sense in the context we have been given. This isn't a twist ending for twisting sake, but a fitting conclusion to the story.
"The Skeleton Key" tries to remind people of classics like "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Others." It may not ultimately hold a candle to those films, but it's a very entertaining way to spend a few hours.
helpful•19647
- WriterDave
- Aug 14, 2005
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Chìa Khóa Xương Người
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $43,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $47,907,715
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $16,057,945
- Aug 14, 2005
- Gross worldwide
- $93,983,911
- Runtime1 hour 44 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content

Recently viewed
Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.