The Skeleton Key is a 2005 American supernatural folk horror film directed by Iain Softley and starring Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands, John Hurt, Peter Sarsgaard, and Joy Bryant.

The screenplay by Ehren Kruger follows a New Orleans hospice nurse who begins a job at a Terrebonne Parish plantation home, and becomes entangled in a mystery involving the house, its former inhabitants, and Hoodoo rituals that took place there.

Caroline Ellis, a hospice aide, quits her position at a nursing home and is hired as the caretaker of an isolated plantation house in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana.

Caroline confronts Violet, who reveals that the room used to belong to two African American servants who were forced to service at the house by the Thorpe family 90 years prior.

The servants, Mama Cecile and Papa Justify, were renowned hoodoo practitioners who were lynched after conducting a ritual with the Thorpes' two children, from whom Violet and Ben later bought the house.

Caroline surmises that Ben's stroke was caused by hoodoo, but believes that his paralytic state is a nocebo effect induced by his own belief, rather than something supernatural.

She asks one of the proprietors, a blind woman, about the Conjure of Sacrifice, which she learns is a spell wherein the caster steals the remaining years of life from the victim.

[3] Actor John Hurt was offered the role of the mute, stroke-ridden Ben Devereaux by director Iain Softley, and accepted, commenting: "He told me with considerable seriousness that it was a very important part and it didn't have any words.

"[11] The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw awarded the film three out of five stars, noting: "It's a pretty thankless role for poor John Hurt, and there are some plot holes.

But there's some shrewd satire of racism as the modern south's persistent, dirty little secret and screenwriter Ehren Kruger's third act conjures up a neat little shiver.

"[8] Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times praised the film, calling it "tightly plotted and suspenseful enough to keep you guessing until the satisfying, unexpected end, which is worth suspending disbelief for," adding that "Hudson holds her own among impressive company.

Not that Hurt has a whole lot to do other than grab an occasional wrist and recoil at his face in the mirror, and the usually measured Sarsgaard oversells it a bit, but Rowlands takes to the part like a fly to a shucked oyster.

"[15] Stephanie Zacharek wrote in Salon: "Softley, working from a script by Ehren Kruger, puts so much care into layering moods and textures that he doesn't always scoot the action along as briskly as he should.

"[17] In her review for The Austin Chronicle, Marjorie Baumgarten wrote: "Director Softley again shows his gifts for creating atmospheric milieus...Yet the movie, overall, lacks tension and suspense.