The Skeleton Key

The Skeleton Key follows Caroline Ellis, a young hospice nurse who takes a job caring for Ben Devereaux, an elderly man left largely immobile after a stroke. He lives with his wife Violet in a decaying plantation house in the bayous outside New Orleans. Violet gives Caroline a master key that opens every door in the house, and Caroline soon finds a hidden attic room filled with items connected to hoodoo, the folk magic practiced in the region. Uneasy about the couple's behavior and the house itself, she begins looking into the property's history, and the mystery at the center of the household pulls her in further.

Iain Softley directed the film, his fifth feature, arriving between K-PAX and Inkheart. Ehren Kruger wrote the screenplay, and Softley produced with Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher. Kate Hudson plays Caroline, with Gena Rowlands as Violet, Peter Sarsgaard as Luke Marshall, John Hurt as Ben and Joy Bryant as Jill.

Released in July 2005, the film runs 104 minutes and was made for around 43 million dollars, going on to take roughly 92 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.5 out of 10 from about 131,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.6 out of 10 from over 2,300 votes. A critics' rating of 5.4 out of 10 from 157 reviews places it below both audience scores.