“Fearing is believing.”

The Skeleton Key is a film that promises a lot with its premise but struggles under the weight of its own molasses-thick mood. Set against the dripping, decaying backdrop of a Louisiana bayou mansion, it’s a Southern Gothic with all the right ingredients: hoodoo folklore, a sprawling plantation with secrets behind every door, and a protagonist slowly unraveling a mystery that’s bigger than she realises. And yet, despite that, the result feels strangely flat—more a whisper than a scream.

Kate Hudson, coming off the high of Almost Famous, takes a sharp turn into serious horror territory as Caroline, a hospice nurse who takes a job caring for an elderly man in a crumbling estate just outside New Orleans. While the role may seem like a bid for dramatic reinvention, she holds her own, maintaining a grounded presence even as the film dips into increasingly supernatural waters. It’s a far cry from her usual rom-com terrain, and while the script doesn’t give her much emotional range to explore, she carries the material with competence. Peter Sarsgaard and Gena Rowlands offer solid support, though both feel like they’re keeping one eye on the script and the other on the exit.

Visually, the film does the heavy lifting. The cinematography leans hard into shadowy corridors, candlelit rituals, and waterlogged tension. Director Iain Softley succeeds in conjuring a sense of dread, but he doesn’t quite know what to do with it. The pacing is painfully slow, dragging through the second act like it’s knee-deep in swamp water. When the final twist comes—an admittedly gutsy one—it’s more of a surprise than a payoff, and by then, the viewer’s attention may have already wandered.

There’s an intriguing idea buried in The Skeleton Key—about belief as a form of power, and the lingering rot of American racial and spiritual history—but it never quite rises above its aesthetic. The film wants to be smart horror, but it lacks the narrative snap to match its atmospheric bite.

The Prognosis: 

The Skeleton Key is a moody, fog-drenched thriller that starts strong but never shakes off its torpor. Hudson gives it her best, but the film gets lost in its own slow-boiled murk.

• Saul Muerte