The Skeleton Key
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Iain Softley
Thomas Uskali
Bill H Mckenzie
Gena Rowlands
Ronald Mccall
Rudy Regalado
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Strong-minded Caroline Ellis is a driven young woman with no time for local tales of witchcraft and black magic. The young hospice worker is determined to make enough money to attend nursing school, even if it means taking a job as a live-in caretaker for the elderly owner of an isolated plantation house an hour's drive outside of New Orleans, deep in the atmospheric Louisiana delta renowned for the locals' mystical practices and powerful ceremonies. The decrepit Terrebonne Parish mansion is home to born-and-bred Southerners Violet and Ben Devereaux and both the house and its occupants seem weighted with somber histories. But for Caroline, the setting is unimportant--she's there to do her job, caring for Ben after a stroke has left him nearly paralyzed and mute. To make maneuvering throughout the large home an easier task, Violet entrusts the new live-in with a skeleton key that unlocks every door--including one that Caroline discovers obscured by a bookcase at the back of the house's attic. Seemingly forgotten, the room holds an intriguing mix of antiques, mirrors oddly banished from the rooms below and artifacts apparently connected to the practice of a strange kind of magic--a folk magic that conflicts directly with Caroline's common sense and pragmatic way of thinking. And yet, small instances of the unexplainable begin to occur. The mansion--and the strange couple who inhabit it--are rife with secrets. The more Caroline explores, the deeper she is drawn into a darkening mystery in the attic room at the very heart of the house--towards a terrifying and sinister legacy that threatens to take vengeance on anyone who comes to believe in its power. As Caroline begins to question her own convictions, she comes ever closer to opening the door and crossing the threshold to where simple belief becomes deadly reality.
Director
Iain Softley
Cast
Thomas Uskali
Bill H Mckenzie
Gena Rowlands
Ronald Mccall
Rudy Regalado
Joe Chrest
Fahnlohnee R Harris
Lawrence Harvey
Walter Breax
Mark Krasnoff
Maxine Barnett
Philip Frazier
Peter Sarsgaard
Byron Bernard
Tiffany Helland
Isaach Debankolt
Bryan Ruppert
Bruce Barns
Susannah Thorarinsson
Eluard Burt Ii
Herbert Stevens
Keith Frazier
Stafford Agee
John Hurt
Howard Mccary
Dustin Fleetwood
Roderick Harrison
Jen Apgar
Tonya Staten
Trula Marcus
Nolan Shaheed
Lakrishi Kindred
Derrick Tabb
Glen Andrews
Jeryl Prescott Sales
Jamie Lee Redmon
Joy Bryant
Forrest Landis
Ann Dalrymple
Kevin O'neal
Derek Shezbie
Marion Zinser
Melissa Kaplan
Christa Thorne
Torrey Mckinley
Ryan Porter
Deneen D Tyler
Jason Bedig
George Harper
Shamar Allen
Alfred Roberts
David J Curtis
Kate Hudson
Crew
Michael Alvarado
Tim Alverson
Colin Anderson
Colin Anderson
Dale E. Anderson
Scott M. Anderson
Keith Anthony
Steve Apostolina
Fred Arbegast
Gordon Ard
Ed Arter
Christopher Assells
Kenneth Au
Tom Bahr
Heather Baker
Ron Baratie
Bruce Barns
Bruce Barns
John Beard
Mary Pat Bentel
Michael Betz
David Bilow
Georges Bizet
Josh Bleibtreu
Josh Bleibtreu
Kathryn Blondell
Daniel Bobker
Martin Bosworth
Drew Boughton
Stephen Bourgeois
Justin Bourret
Walter Breaux
Walter Breaux
June Brickman
Rick Broderman
W. Earl Brown
Maya Browne
Martha Bryan
Richard Buden
Richard Buden
Jenna Buffaloe
Gary Burritt
Eluard Burt Ii
Eluard Burt Ii
James Burt
David Byrne
Bryan Carrigan
Javier Carrillo
Javier Carrillo
Kevin Cerchiai
Terry P Chapman
Liz Chiz
June Christopher
Peter C Clarke
Rudy Coblentz
Harry Cohen
Lisa Cohen
John T Connor
Todd Constantine
Larry Cottrill
Elizabeth Coulon
David Cowgill
Brandon Cox
Beth W Crookham
Alex Cruz
Mary Elizabeth Cuccia Smith
Mick Cukurs
Michael Cutler
Wendy Cutler
William R Davidson
Theodore M Davila
Sandy De Crescent
Dave Deever
Dave Degaetano
Dan Deleeuw
Helio Deoliveira
Matt Derksen
Peter Devlin
David Diamond
Louis Dinson
Tracy Dixon
Sharon Donovan
Holly Dorff
Julie Drach
Mitch Dubin
Frank Duffy
Thom Ehle
Martin Elfalan
Robert Elhai
Annie Ellis
Jimmy Ellis
Christopher Elly
Jann Engel
David L Falconer
Zach Fannin
Johnny Farmer
Johnny Farmer
Michael Fauntleroy
Lisa Jean Felski
Ralph J Fierro
Mark Figueroa
Craig Fincannon
Lisa Mae Fincannon
Amy Finkle
Katie Fitch
Dustin Fleetwood
Andy Flores
George Flores
Rosalyn Flot
Michael J Flynn
Chris Fogel
Chris Fogel
Chris Fogel
Keith Frazier
Philip Frazier
Stephanie Frey
Louise Frogley
Laurel Frushour
Don Fullilove
Conrad Gamble
Miranda Garrison
Rod Garvin
John Gathright
Rickie Joe Gee
Susan Germaine
Nerses Gezalyan
Dominic Gibbs
Tom Gibson
Beniamino Gigli
Zoila Gomez
Jeff Gomillion
Mario Rolando Gonzalez
Kerry Michele Gutierrez
Tim Hammond
Larry Haney
Mark Hannibal
Andrew Harrington
Anthony Harris
Fawn Lohnee Harris
Fawn Lohnee Harris
Laura Harris
Adam Harrison
Roderick Harrison
Barbara Hawkins
Rosa Lee Hawkins
Fontaine Beauchamp Hebb
John Heller
Gregory D Hemstreet
Karl Herbst
John K Hill
Jennifer Ho
Patrick R. Hoeschen
Elita Hoffpauir
Ella Hoffpauir
Mary Hoffpauir
Neil Holcomb
Buddy Joe Hooker
Joe Horrigan
Joe Hutshing
Rif Hutton
Andrew Jablonski
William Jackson
Craig Jaeger
Nancy James
Kathy Jarvis
Blind Willie Johnson
Blind Willie Johnson
Joan Marie Johnson
Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson
Tom H. Johnson
Trent Johnson
Walter Jones
Daryl Kell
John Kennedy
Cynthia Kershaw
Karen Klein
Jay Kleinhesselink
Hilary Klym
Jahmila Knell
Joyce Kogut
Selma Kora
Ronna Kress
Kyle Krogh
Ehren Kruger
Ehren Kruger
Eliza Ladensohn
Michael Lambert
Mary Etta Lang
Suttirat Larlarb
Tim Lauber
Polly Leach
Donna Lynn Leavy
Scot Leczel
Barrett J Leigh
Lisa Lengyel
Julia Levine
Jason Lloyd
Jennifer Lobban
Alan Lomax
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States on Video November 15, 2005
Released in United States Summer August 12, 2005
Based on a spec script by Ehren Kruger (part of his two-picture deal at Universal worth seven figures).
Project is part of a two-picture, seven-figure deal Kruger signed with Universal.
Universal Pictures paid Kate Hudson $7 million to star in the film.
Universal Pictures pushed back the project's start date from fall of 2003 to spring of 2004 due to Kate Hudson's pregnancy.
Released in United States Summer August 12, 2005
Released in United States on Video November 15, 2005
