Stirring up a humid Gothic mood and amassing a gifted roster of actors, “The Skeleton Key” is unable to ward off the nasty spirits of formula screenwriting. Recipe mixes equal parts Deep Southern ...

For “The Skeleton Key” (2005, Universal, R, $30), Kate Hudson goes gritty to play a Jersey girl who takes a job caring for a mute invalid (John Hurt) and his Yankee-hating wife (Gena Rowlands) at ...

Horror films seem to fall into two camps these days. One form of the genre is almost a mockery of itself and its themes; gore and horror exist as a form of amusement, and while the audience certainly ...

Iain Softley’s shimmering Southern gothic horror chiller The Skeleton Key was released in mid-August of 2005, just a few ...

Skeleton Key is directed by Iain Softley (K-Pax, Wings of the Dove) from an original script by Ehren Kruger (Scream 3, The Ring 1 and 2). It stars Kate Hudson, Peter Sarsgaard, Gena Rowlands and John ...

Forget hoodoo: Attention to craftsmanship is its own kind of curse. Because Iain Softley’s Southern gothic thriller “The Skeleton Key” is one of those late-summer releases that gets its turn only ...

Whether you would enjoy supernatural thriller The Skeleton Key may come down to two factors: 1) Your tolerance of dark depictions of witchcraft and voodoo. 2) Your tolerance of movies written by Ehren ...

Death is a constant presence in the life of Caroline Ellis (Kate Hudson). She works in a hospice, accompanying dying people during their final hours and moments. While she finds it hard to suppress ...

Naive hospice caretaker Caroline (Kate Hudson) certainly falls into that category, but The Skeleton Key, a basic bayou thriller distinguished by a very self-conscious subversive streak, rises nicely ...