Talk:The Skeleton Key

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Body switching and violet
Is this article correct that Mama Cecile's soul was transferred to Caroline's body? It seemed a lot like to me when I watched this that Violet's soul was transferred to Caroline's body, since she smoked and the way that she talked was a lot like Violet. The snare (talk) 07:04, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
 * It is correct. The sequence of body trades is that first Mama Cecile transferred herself into the body of the original owner's little girl. When the little girl's body got to be too old for her, she transferred her soul into the body of Violet. When Violet's body aged to the point where it wasn't good enough for her, Mama Cecile transferred her soul into Caroline. There was no "Violet" during the film- it was always Mama Cecile.Tokyogirl79 (talk) 06:05, 16 January 2009 (UTC)Tokyogirl79

Maybe the article should be edited to reflect the fact that on one interpretation there is this succession of soul transfers. After all, it's not entirely obvious throughout the film that such transferrance is involved. E.g., if all the old-timers needed was fresh young bodies, why was there any attempt to prevent Caroline from going into the attic? Seems like they would have welcomed her "discovering" hoodoo as soon as possible. Why did the old man point to Violet when Caroline asked him what he was afraid of, if he presumably knew her to be his "wife" (unless he just was tired of Mama Cecile at that point, but that's another issue), and so on. C d h (talk) 14:46, 9 February 2009 (UTC)
 * The "old man" Ben was the real owner of the estate lawyer's body who had been put into Papa Justify's previous body (old man Ben); PJ switched bodies into the lawyer's. Hence, "Ben" is terrified of Violet aka Mama Cecile.

No fool did you hear Violet talking like that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.119.111.170 (talk) 00:09, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Nah, it's quite clear that Violet and her husband were never really present throughout the movie. Presumably she wasn't wanted in the attic because of the valuable nature of the stuff their to Mama C, and to keep her from being frightened off to quickly. More importantly that doesn't seem to support another interpretation(they didn't want her to believe?). The old man pointed at her because her husband had already stolen his body, he was already like how Caroline ends up. 99.6.140.108 (talk) 03:15, 15 March 2009 (UTC)


 * 'Violet' at the beginning, and 'Caroline' at the end, of the movie, makes it clear that there was a problem in people understanding the ways of the house, and modern people not much believing in Hoodoo anymore. They had to cultivate and inculcate a sense of the reality of the thing because possession must be of someone who believes. Caroline had to be restricted from the room but for the purpose of a certain reverse-psychology, and intrigued by it on the other hand by the rattling of the doorknob, and the difficulty using the key, etc. In this, she mirrors the growing apprehension of the audience by her own growing apprehension that something is happening that is genuinely paranormal and not clinical/psychological. Her complete 'conversion' happens toward the end, just as 'Violet' (Mama C) had rigged it. She believes it, she believes in protective circles, she believes the whole nine yards; she is thus prepared for the final step: swapping souls. JohndanR (talk) 05:27, 14 July 2016 (UTC)

Violet and her husband don't appear at all in the movie. They were transferred into the bodies of the original children in the 60's, and are therefore presumably dead (or very long-lived, but it doesn't matter either way). For most of the movie, the women who appears to be Violet is infact Mama c (except at the end, when it is Caroline- as Mama C has moved into her instead). The man who appears to be Violet's husband for most of the movie is infact the lawyer, as Papa J had been inhabiting his body for about 40 years, but switched from that body to the lawyer just prior to the start of the movie.

Watching the movie for a second time, (and therefore knowing the twist)...it's quite disturbing (not that it wasn't originally) to realise you are actually watching the drunken revellers lynch and burn their own, now paralysed and helpless, children. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.0.3.228 (talk) 23:49, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

INFERRED?
The article says it is inferred that the possessed children later transfers their souls to Ben and Violet, but I beg to differ. Ben and Violet are the children. Whomever those folks were in the picture shown to Caroline was most likely picture that comes with a purchased picture frame. I am not sure why the "new" Mama C sent the black girl away, when she wanted a black girl's body this time around. 68.249.105.38 (talk) 03:27, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, though that could just be possible...it would mean that the bodies of Violet and Ben would have to be approximately 90 years old in the movie, and they clearly aren't. Furthermore, even disregarding the age discrepancy, it doesn't make sense as it adds nothing to the movie whatsoever. Once Mama/Papa had the bodies of the children, no reason exists to lie and claim to be new owners. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.0.3.228 (talk) 23:57, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

In response to 69.249.105.38's comment, Violet didn't scare the black girl away; she was scared away because she believed in hoodoo. If you recall, Caroline went to the hospital, and the nurse she talked to was the one who last worked for Violet. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.9.118.179 (talk) 21:07, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

As explained below, the hoodoo magicians stole the bodies of the white children in the 1920s, but those bodies are now dead. It's a while since I've seen the film, but I thought it was explicitly stated that Geena Rowlands and John Hurt came to the house in the 1960s when they were young. By 2005 their (possessed) bodies are old, so the magicians need to leap to Kate Hudson and Peter Saarsgard. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 171.159.48.4 (talk) 11:44, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Formatting?
It looks like somebody was editing the plot of this and got pulled away, leaving holes between the paragraphs and unfinished (or un-begun) sentences. I've never seen the entire movie, so maybe someone who knows the plot could fix it up? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.169.26.29 (talk) 21:21, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

sub-genre
Soul/mind/spirit swap from one about to die to a healthy host is a small sub-genre of horror.

In H.P. Lovecraft's The Thing on the Doorstep, the dying wizard Ephraim Waite swaps souls with his daughter Asenath, leaving her soul to die in his aging body, then swaps souls with Asenath's husband, Edward Derby, leaving Derby's soul in Asenath's dying body. In Lovecraft's tale, for generations "Ephraim" has been transfering his soul from his death bed to his son (only this last time he only sired a daughter).

In Scanners (1981) two telepaths Cameron Vale and Darryl Revok are locked in a psychic duel: as Vale's body self-immolates he swaps souls with Revok so Vale survives in Revok's body.

In The Skeleton Key the swaps are complicated enough to require a guide book.
 * 1920s Mama Cecile and Papa Justify swaps souls with Martin and Grace, the children of the plantation owner, who die when "Cecile" and "Justify" are lynched for hoodoo.
 * 1960s, from the bodies of the then-adult Martin and Grace, they swap souls with Ben and Violet, prospective buyers who had come to look at the plantation, both dying from a stroke shortly after having "sold" the mansion, as is revealed by a young caregiver Caroline visits during her investigation.
 * Present day, from the body of Ben, Papa Justify swaps soul with the lawyer Luke (leaving Luke's soul trapped in Ben's crippled and mute body) and Papa Justify ("Luke") and Mama Cecile ("Violet") cultivate Caroline so Mama Cecile can swap soul with Caroline (leaving Caroline in Violet's body).

The Skeleton Key works because this plotline has not been overdone and because The Skeleton Key does it so well (it works when you watch it over, while some cleverly plotted films don't). Naaman Brown (talk) 23:18, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

H. G. Wells's The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Story_of_the_Late_Mr._Elvesham) displays a similar situation. Rodrigomorante (talk) 12:51, 5 February 2010 (UTC)Rodrigomorante

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Quick Question
Roughly thirty minutes ago, I included the Southern gothic genre to this movie with a relatively good citation. Would it be okay if this movie is considered as part of the Southern gothic genre? Thanks! Conservative Alabamian (talk) 21:17, 23 May 2022 (UTC)