|
The Skeleton Key is a 2005 horror-suspense film released in the UK on 22 July and in the USA on August 12. It is set in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana and has a cast led by Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands, and John Hurt in an original screenplay by Ehren Kruger, directed by Iain Softley. Image File history File links This is a copyrighted poster. ...
Iain Softley is a British film director. ...
Michael Shamberg is a producer of movies. ...
Stacey Sher is a film producer. ...
Ehren Kruger is a screenwriter and film producer, born 5 October 1972 and was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Screenplay for The Ring. ...
Kate Garry Hudson[1] (born April 19, 1979) is an American film actress. ...
Gena Rowlands (born June 19, 1930) is an American actress. ...
Peter Sarsgaard (born March 7, 1971) is a Golden Globe Award-nominated American film and stage actor. ...
John Vincent Hurt CBE (born January 22, 1940) is an Academy Award-nominated English actor. ...
Joy Bryant (born 19 October 1976) is an American actress and former fashion model for Tommy Hilfiger. ...
Edward Shearmur 1966 - Present Ed Shearmur was born in 1966 in London England and is famously known as a composer of music for film. ...
Joe Hutshing is an American film editor who grew up in San Diego, California and is most well known for working multiple times with film director, Oliver Stone and well as with film director Cameron Crowe (who is also from San Diego, California). ...
Universal Pictures is the main motion picture production/distribution arm of Universal Studios, a subsidiary of NBC Universal. ...
Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ...
July 29 is the 210th day of the year (211th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
This is a list of film-related events in 2005. ...
Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ...
August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
This is a list of film-related events in 2005. ...
Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
1922s Nosferatu Horror films are films of the horror genre that are designed to elicit fright, fear, terror, disgust or horror from viewers. ...
Thriller films are movies that primarily use action and suspense to engage the audience. ...
is the 203rd day of the year (204th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Terrebonne Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. ...
Kate Garry Hudson[1] (born April 19, 1979) is an American film actress. ...
Gena Rowlands (born June 19, 1930) is an American actress. ...
John Vincent Hurt CBE (born January 22, 1940) is an Academy Award-nominated English actor. ...
Ehren Kruger is a screenwriter and film producer, born 5 October 1972 and was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Screenplay for The Ring. ...
Iain Softley is a British film director. ...
Plot Caroline (played by Kate Hudson) is a New Orleans hospital aide from Hoboken, New Jersey, who, after her latest patient dies, quits her "medibusiness" job and takes a position as a private hospice caregiver at an isolated plantation house deep in the bayous of southern Louisiana. The lady of the house, Violet (played by Gena Rowlands) is a diffident woman who requires help to care for her husband Ben (played by John Hurt), who suffered a serious stroke, which has left him paralyzed and speechless, with about a month left to live. Kate Garry Hudson[1] (born April 19, 1979) is an American film actress. ...
New Orleans is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ...
Map of New Jersey highlighting Hoboken Image of Hoboken taken by NASA (red line shows where Hoboken is). ...
Official language(s) English de facto Capital Trenton Largest city Newark Area Ranked 47th - Total 8,729 sq mi (22,608 km²) - Width 70 miles (110 km) - Length 150 miles (240 km) - % water 14. ...
Palliative care is any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of the symptoms of a disease or slows its progress rather than providing a cure. ...
// This article is about crop plantations. ...
A bayou (pronounced or ) is a small, slow-moving stream or creek formed in the former bed of a river. ...
Gena Rowlands (born June 19, 1930) is an American actress. ...
John Vincent Hurt CBE (born January 22, 1940) is an Academy Award-nominated English actor. ...
Stroke (or cerebrovascular accident or CVA) is the clinical designation for a rapidly developing loss of brain function due to an interruption in the blood supply to all or part of the brain. ...
Paralysis is the complete loss of muscle function for one or more muscle groups. ...
An album released on June 15, 1999 by Steven Curtis Chapman 1. ...
Violet gives Caroline a skeleton key to open every room within the large mansion, except for a small room hidden in the attic, which is where Ben had his stroke. This does not stop Caroline from eventually getting into that room, after something inside apparently rattles the door, and uncovering bizarre items including jars of pickled organs, magical objects, and a full-size voodoo doll. Violet says to Caroline that the room belonged to two black servants who had lived in the house in the 1920s, Mama Cecile (Jeryl Prescott) and her husband, Papa Justify (Ron McCall) under a cruel employer who had them lynched in the presence of their children for practicing hoodoo. Caroline dismisses this as superstition, but the longer she stays in the house, the more and more strange events occur, piquing her curiosity about the obscure (to her) swamp religions and their relationship to the physical condition of Ben, whom she has become determined to save and restore to health. A single key A key is a device which is used to open a lock. ...
Voodoo (Vodou, Vodoun, Vudu, or Vudun in Benin, Togo, southeastern Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Senegal; also Vodou in Haiti) is a name attributed to a traditionally uten West African spiritual system of faith and ritual practices. ...
Lynching is a form of violence, usually murder, conceived of by its perpetrators as extrajudicial punishment for offenders or as a terrorist method of enforcing social domination. ...
This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
The number 13 is often avoided in public buildings, also floors, doors and this Santa Anita Park horse stall. ...
The twist Caroline, after realizing that Violet is working harmful spells on Ben, seeks the help of the young lawyer Luke (played by Peter Sarsgaard) hired to rewrite Violet and Ben's wills. While in Luke's house, Caroline discovers clues leading to the revelation that Luke is in fact assisting Violet. Just as Caroline is about to act, Luke captures her and takes her back to the manor. Peter Sarsgaard (born March 7, 1971) is a Golden Globe Award-nominated American film and stage actor. ...
This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...
Caroline is held captive, but manages to get free and "rig" (roughly, enchant) the house with brick dust, which is said to keep away those who mean one harm. After accidentally breaking Violet's legs, Caroline snatches from Violet a piece of paper upon which is written a spell of protection and forms a protective circle around herself. Violet comes into the ritual room, and explains that "they" have been waiting for her to believe. Caroline tries to deny the fact that she now believes in hoodoo, but cannot convince herself. This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Violet pushes a mirror at Caroline, which contains the image, initially of the little girl, then of the Violet and ultimately of Mama Cecile. The mirror smashes into Caroline, knocking her unconscious. Caroline then wakes up and walks over to Violet, who is barely awake. She takes Violet's cigarettes, and begins to smoke, while she utters the words "Thank you, child," revealing to the audience that the soul of Mama Cecile is now inside Caroline's body. The mirror acted as a portal, and transferred Mama Cecile's soul into Caroline's body, while placing Caroline's soul in Violet's body. Luke walks in, and it is revealed that he too is not who he claims to be. His body is possessed by the soul of Papa Justify. Ben, who was previously the host to Papa Justify's soul, is revealed to be the real Luke.
Mama Cecile (in Caroline's body) gives Caroline (in Violet's body) a liquid which causes a pseudo stroke. This prevents her from talking, so that she can't reveal the presences of Mama Cecile and Papa Justify. The film ends with "stroke" victims Violet and Ben in an ambulance looking at each other and Caroline realizing she and Luke are trapped in Violet's and Ben's bodies. The final chapter is that "Ben" and "Violet" left the house to "Caroline", thus leaving the house to Mama Cecile and Papa Justify.
By examining the flashbacks and listening carefully to the dialogue, one may infer that Mama Cecile and Papa Justify transferred their souls into their employer’s children on the fateful night of their lynching, placing the children's souls in their own bodies. Thus, their employer actually killed his own son and daughter. In 1962 the pair again used hoodoo to transfer their souls to Ben and Violet, leaving the real Ben and Violet to die in the bodies of the Twins. Once Ben and Violet became too old, they performed their ritual once more on Luke and Caroline. Thus, Mama Cecile and Papa Justify have occupied the house in various forms since the 1920s.
The setting in reality The movie was filmed at the historic Felicity Plantation, actually located on the Mississippi River in Saint James Parish, Louisiana, not the coastal, swampy Terrebonne Parish. At the end of the movie, the aerial shot of the house and its grounds was actually done with CGI technology. In that shot, the house and the grove of trees surrounding it are real, but the swamp that seems to be on the verge of engulfing the house is not really there. Behind the house actually lie hundreds of acres of fields. In reality, the house is not really run down; it was decorated with ivy, among other things, to set the tone. Built in 1846, Felicity Plantation was a wedding gift to Emma Félicité Aime from her father, the fabled Gabriel Valcour Aime. ...
For the river in Canada, see Mississippi River (Ontario). ...
St. ...
Terrebonne Parish is a parish located in the state of Louisiana. ...
Computer-generated imagery (commonly abbreviated as CGI) is the application of the field of computer graphics (or more specifically, 3D computer graphics) to special effects in films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media. ...
Trivia The house used in this movie resembles the one used in the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation is a 1994 sequel to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) horror film. ...
Notes The 78 RPM record "The conjure of sacrifice", that played a key role in the film, was remixed by the British DJ Steve Lawler into an electro house song titled "The Conjure". Sections of the incantation can be heard in the song. Steve Lawler is a British house music producer and DJ who has held residences at many popular dance clubs such as Space and Twilo. ...
This article is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ...
Goofs - The doorknob from the attic door changes color and size.
- During the second bathing scene, Caroline accidentally drops a bar of soap in the water. She drops the sponge she was using and uses a mirror and cloth to wipe her eye. When she returns, the soap is still in the water, but the sponge is on a platform.
- The Finale Mirror Scene: for continuity the images should have appeared as Violet, then Grace (the girl twin), then Mama Cecile—rather than Grace, Violet, then Mama Cecile.
- In the scene where Caroline is driving to Terrebonne Parish for her first interview (Louisianians already know this one), she's driving north (evidenced by the map she's following) over the bridge that crosses Lake Pontchartrain—the one that flooded New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. Terrebonne Parish is actually south of New Orleans, and there is no bridged swamp quite that large en route.
External links |
Feeds |
Contact