the skeleton key

Director: iain softley

Actor: kate hudson,peter sarsgaard,joy bryant,gena rowlands

Data Published: Fri Jul 29 2005

Genres: Drama,Horror,Mystery,Thriller

Key Words: hoodoo,bound and gagged,southern gothic,surprise ending,double barreled shotgun

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397101/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeleton_Key

Description: The Skeleton Key is a movie starring Kate Hudson, Peter Sarsgaard, and Joy Bryant. A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.

Plot: Caroline Ellis, a hospice aide, quits her position at a hospital and is hired as the caretaker of an isolated plantation house in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. The elderly lady of the house, Violet Devereaux, needs help looking after her husband Benjamin, who was mostly paralyzed by an apparent stroke. At the insistence of the family's estate lawyer, Luke Marshall, Caroline accepts the position. After Ben attempts to escape his room during a storm, Caroline uses a skeleton key which Violet gave her, to investigate the house's attic, where Violet says Ben suffered his stroke. She discovers a secret room filled with ritual paraphernalia. Caroline confronts Violet, who reveals that the room used to belong to two African American servants who were employed at the house 90 years before. The servants, Mama Cecile and Papa Justify, were renowned Hoodoo practitioners, and were lynched after conducting a ritual with the owner's two children (from whom Violet and Ben later bought the house). Violet tells Caroline that they do not keep mirrors in the house because they see reflections of Cecile and Justify in them. Caroline borrows a phonograph record called the "Conjure of Sacrifice" from the attic, which is a recording of Papa Justify reciting a Hoodoo ritual. Caroline surmises that Ben's stroke was induced by Hoodoo, but believes that his paralytic state is a nocebo effect induced by his own belief, rather than something supernatural. Taking advice from her friend Jill, Caroline accesses a hidden Hoodoo shop in a nearby laundromat, where a Hoodoo woman gives her tools and instructions to cure Ben. After conducting the ritual, Ben regains some ability to speak and move, and he begs Caroline to get him away from Violet. Caroline tells Luke about her suspicions towards Violet, but he remains skeptical. They travel to a gas station that Caroline previously noted was lined with brick dust, which she was told is a defense against Hoodoo; supposedly, no one who means one harm can pass a line of brick dust. She asks one of the proprietors, a blind woman, about the Conjure of Sacrifice, which she learns is a Hoodoo spell wherein the caster steals the remaining years of life from the victim. Increasingly convinced of Hoodoo's authenticity, Caroline fears that Violet will soon cast the spell on Ben. Caroline discovers that Violet is unable to pass a line of brick dust laid across one of the house's doorways, confirming her suspicions. She incapacitates Violet and attempts to escape the house with Ben, but Violet uses magic to chain the front gate. Caroline hides Ben on the property and enters Luke's office for help. Luke, revealed to be Violet's accomplice, brings Caroline back to the house. With strategic use of brick dust, Caroline flees to the attic (pushing Violet down the stairs and breaking her legs in the process), calls 9-1-1 and Jill for help, and casts what she believes is a protective spell. Violet, having caught up with her, reveals she actually trapped herself inside a protective circle. Violet pushes a full-length mirror at Caroline, which reflects one of the original owner's children, then Violet, and lastly Cecile. A recording of the Conjure of Sacrifice plays, and the two switch bodies. Violet (revealed to be Mama Cecile, who had been occupying Violet's body through the Conjure) wakes up in Caroline's body, and force-feeds Caroline (now in Violet's body) a potion that induces a stroke-like paralytic state. Luke (revealed to be Papa Justify) arrives upstairs, and it is revealed that Mama Cecile and Papa Justify have been conducting the Conjure of Sacrifice on new people since their supposed lynching. Because Hoodoo is supposedly only effective on those who believe in it, Cecile and Justify had to wait for Caroline to come to believe in Hoodoo through her own investigation. Emergency services arrive the next morning and take Caroline and Luke away, trapped in the paralyzed dying bodies of Violet and Ben; "Luke" (Justify) tells Jill when she arrives that the Devereauxes left the house to Caroline, ensuring that Cecile and Justify will continue to occupy the house.