The Skeleton Key (2005)

The first must-see film of the year.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Kate hudson killed it as the lead role. Every actor added some flavor to the film overall.Movie has original story, great plot and mind boggling twist. The twist like "Shutter Island" where you understand whole movie at last point at once. We seen this movie with whole family and left speechless for a moment due to the unusual twist.One of my All time favorite.

With October coming up,I started looking round for a Horror movie that I could pick up for a friend to view.Talking to a family friend,I got told about a tense sounding voodoo film,which led to me getting ready to unlock the skeleton.The plot:Disguised by the disinterested attitude that her fellow care workers are showing to patients, caregiver Caroline Ellis decides to move to New Orleans after seeing an ad in the paper for a care person being wanted.Meeting Violet Devereaux at the family plantation house,Ellis is told that she is to help Violet look after her husband Ben,who has suffered a serious stroke.As Ellis settles into the job,Violet gives Ellis a "skeleton key",which will allow her to open every door in the house.Looking round the house,Ellis finds a photo of the past owners with their slaves.Getting asked to get an item from the attic,Ellis goes up and is shocked to find a locked door shaking in the corner of the room.Putting the key in the lock,Ellis discovers that despite what Violet has said,that the key does not unlock the door. Continuing to hear the door shake,Ellis starts to investigate the secret past of the house.View on the film:Filmed on a real plantation house,director Iain Softley & cinematographer Daniel Mindel uncover every haunted corner of the building with elegant crane shots,which along with setting out the entire location,also creates an eerie atmosphere of something unsettled lurking in the house.Along with the gliding shots of the house,Softley also stabs sudden shots of black & white footage into the title,which gradually reveal the frantic voodoo chants that Ellis has crossed into.Treating voodoo (and Hoodoo) in a respectful manner,the screenplay by Ehren Kruger takes advantage of Ellis outsider Statius,by piling all of the mythical tales and hidden secrets of the house on Ellis shoulders,which leads to Ellis struggling to pick up on Violet's menace laying just under the surface.Giving Ben just a handful of words,Kruger smartly makes Ben's non-verbal signs of unease be the driving force to Ellis uncovering the secret of the house,which leads to Ellis unlocking a deliciously dark, macabre twist ending.Made just 3 months after she had her first child,Kate Hudson (who looks rather alluring in a topless scene) gives an excellent performance as Ellis,with Hudson always keeping Ellis belief in care at the centre of the character,whilst also displaying clear signs of nervous excitement over the voodoo and hoodoo culture that she has entered.Joining Hudson,Gena Rowlands gives a wonderfully tense,brittle performance as Violet Devereaux,whose sly smile hides horrifying secrets,whilst John Hurt superbly shows silent fear as Ben,as Ellis opens the door with a voodoo skeleton key.

The insipid Kate Hudson (Goldie Hawn's daughter) stars in this half-baked slice of Southern Gothic as a nurse who winds up at a creepy and run-down old plantation to care for a seriously disabled man. Her job goes well at first, but she soon begins to ask questions about her controlling employer (the man's wife) as well as the secrets hidden in the locked attic.And so we have THE SKELETON KEY, which effectively manages some atmospheric moments but spoils them with barely-decent writing in which everything is forced to play out to its predictable climax. In that respect it's a little like WHAT LIES BENEATH, an equally play-it-safe thriller that seems to have been aimed at bored housewives more than anything else.The inclusion in the plot of themes of voodoo and immortality is interesting, but the execution is only so-so. It doesn't help that the cast is weak; Hudson is boring, Peter Sarsgaard is weak, and only Gena Rowlands seems to be channelling the Bette Davis spirit of old. John Hurt is the best actor here, but he's pretty much wasted in a role where he's given very little to do. THE SKELETON KEY deserves commendation for trying something different, but in the end there's not much here.

Here is One that is Not Let Down by its PG-13 Rating Because this is All Superstition and Such, All in the Mind of the Believer. It is a Swampy, Cajun Atmosphere of Dried Herbs and Bones with Rhythmic Chants and Rituals.Kate Hudson is Fine as a Hospice Worker that Overcompensates for Not Helping Her Father Cross to the Other Side and Enters a World Where Medicine is Replaced by Potions and Doctors are Replace by Ju Ju, or Hoodo to be More Precise.Peter Sarsgaard and Gena Rowlands Add a bit of Gravitas to what's Going On and You Have to Pay Attention to Know what that is. The Movie is Creepy Enough and Old Worldly and Other Worldly Enough to Keep You a bit Mesmerized.Overall, Worth a Watch for its Twist Ending, that You Might Not See Coming, and for a Low-Key Atmosphere that Never Goes Over the Top, Just Up to the Attic a Few Times. You Might Want to Sprinkle Some Brick Dust About Before Viewing.