Slow-burn horror films can be a refuge of sorts for talented actresses in search of a lead role. Just as Jennifer Connelly anchored the excellent Dark Water, Kate Hudson headlines The Skeleton Key, a clever little thriller under the spell of Louisiana voodoo. As Caroline, a hospice worker who goes to work for a stroke victim (John Hurt) and his wife (Gena Rowlands) in their bayou mansion, she gets to do something other than beam at us with that sunny, moony face. Who would have thought that gloominess would so become her? With invaluable support from Rowlands, Hurt and Peter
Sarsgaard.
