The Skeleton Key (2005) on Netflix
PG-1320051h 44mHorrorMysteryThriller
Caroline Ellis, a hospice aide, takes a job at a Louisiana plantation house, caring for Benjamin Devereaux, paralyzed by a stroke. A skeleton key from his wife Violet opens an attic room.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb6.5/10133,354 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes38%
Trailer
Plot summary
Caroline Ellis leaves her nursing home job for a position at a remote plantation house in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, where Violet Devereaux needs help caring for her husband Benjamin, left nearly paralyzed and unable to speak by a stroke. The family lawyer, Luke Marshall, urges Caroline to take the work. During a storm Benjamin tries to leave his room, and Caroline uses a skeleton key Violet gave her to search the attic where he suffered his stroke. Behind a locked door she finds a room full of ritual objects. Violet explains that the house once belonged to the Thorpe family and that two servants, Mama Cecile and Papa Justify, practiced hoodoo there. She says the pair were lynched after a rite with the Thorpe children, and that no mirrors hang in the house because the pair appear in them.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Skeleton Key (2005)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- While filming a nighttime sequence during a rainstorm, Gena Rowlands slipped and fell, breaking her hand. She was forced to take a five-week break from shooting, after which her remaining scenes were completed in California.
- John Hurt took the role of the mute, stroke-ridden Ben Devereaux after director Iain Softley told him, with considerable seriousness, that it was a very important part with no words: “I've always been looking for a part that doesn't have to speak. It's got Gena Rowlands. It's New Orleans.”
- Kate Hudson's pregnancy at the time held the film up before a frame was shot: principal photography was delayed by eight months.
- Gena Rowlands was cast as Violet Devereaux and decided to take the role because she had never made a horror film before.
