The Skeleton Key

[from trailer]

Luke:
Good night, child.

Violet Devereaux:
We've been waiting for you, Caroline.

Violet Devereaux:
Child, I believe you broke my legs.

Caroline Ellis:
I told you I wanted a black one this time.

Luke:
You know the black ones never stay. Beggars can't be choosers. I think it suits you beautifully. It's better than Violet or Grace, even. We'll get used to it. We always do.

Caroline Ellis:
I saw the room.

Violet Devereaux:
What room?

Caroline Ellis:
The room you said you've never seen

[first lines]

Caroline Ellis:
[reading from Treasure Island] I lost no time, of course, in telling my mother all that I knew, and we saw ourselves at once in a difficult and dangerous position. Something must speedily be resolved upon, and it occurred to us at last to go forth together and seek help in the neighboring hamlet. No sooner said than done. Bare-headed as we were, we ran out at once into the gathering evening and the frosty fog. The hamlet lay not many hundred yards away, though out of view on the other side of the next cove, and what greatly encouraged me, it was in an opposite direction from that whence the blind man had made his appearance. And I shall never forget how much I was cheered to see the yellow shine in the doors and windows; but that, as it proved, was the best of the help we were likely to get in that quarter. For you would have thought men would have been ashamed of themselves; no soul would consent to return with us to the [stops abruptly]

[last lines]

Luke:
She meant so much to them, her being here. I know it wasn't for long, but they really loved her.

Jill:
Why do you say that?

Luke:
It's in their wills. They left her the house.

Caroline Ellis:
It's like, hypnotism, right? Suggestion? And when this stuff works, its because someone believes it works?... And if you thought, you know, that magic made you sick... you might believe in a magic cure?

Mama Cynthia:
Somebody been workin' roots on you!

Caroline Ellis:
Say I knew someone who thought that they'd been...

Mama Cynthia:
Crossed?

Caroline Ellis:
Crossed. Would they believe that they could be... uncrossed?

Caroline Ellis:
Do you know a record called the Conjure of Sacrifice?... Because I have it if you do.

Creole Mother:
If you had that, you wouldn't say so.

Caroline Ellis:
[shouts] I don't believe!

Caroline Ellis:
Thank you, child.

[Struggling to speak as Caroline uses a spell to free him]

Ben Devereaux:
Ca-ro-Line! Help me!

Violet Devereaux:
Are you religious at all?

Caroline Ellis:
I try to keep an open mind.

Caroline Ellis:
Fiddlesticks, I don't know what possessed me.

Violet Devereaux:
I bet they don't have gardens like this is New Jersey.

Caroline Ellis:
Actually, it's "The Garden State".

Violet Devereaux:
I very much doubt that!

Caroline Ellis:
Luke, she tried to kill me. She had a gun, I got away just in time but I had to leave Ben in the shed. We have to go back.

Luke:
The hell we do.

Caroline Ellis:
I left him there.

Luke:
Slow down... You didn't leave ANYBODY.

Luke:
So what exactly happened? I came to update her will, she was up with the doc and he said that he fell?

Caroline Ellis:
He DID fall.

Luke:
Like what from his wheelchair?

Caroline Ellis:
[gestures her head towards the roof]

Luke:
You cannot be serious? Up there? He fell from up there?

Luke:
How? He can't even walk?

Violet Devereaux:
You can't get away, Caroline!

Violet Devereaux:
You think I'm senile, don't you?

Caroline Ellis:
I just don't understand. Why would the ghosts put a spell on Ben and not me? I've been in that room too.

Violet Devereaux:
Maybe because you don't believe them.

Violet Devereaux:
You're not from the south. You wouldn't understand. That room up there?

[points]

Violet Devereaux:
You don't just go in there and throw things out of a room like that. You leave them just where you found them. The house is theirs just as much as ours.

Caroline Ellis:
The house is whose? Whose things are in that room?

Caroline Ellis:
His words have gotten tied, tied in his throat, let the water run down, and cure this affliction. His tongue has gotten tied, tied and tangled, let the water run down, and cure this...

[sudden clap of thunder]

Caroline Ellis:
I thought the key opens everything.

Violet Devereaux:
The key? What key?

Caroline Ellis:
The key you gave me for the house. There is a door in the attic it doesn't work for.

Violet Devereaux:
Oh, the attic, it's never opened that.

Caroline Ellis:
I'm going into town for a while. Shopping.

Violet Devereaux:
For what, Caroline? Caroline! For what?

Caroline Ellis:
...you'll just have to see.

Caroline Ellis:
So was that the storm or the ghosts?

Violet Devereaux:
Well, say what you will about spirits, I always thought you could learn something from them.

Caroline Ellis:
Like a spell? I have great respect for your husband. And whatever he thinks happened to him he's fighting it. What have you done?

Violet Devereaux:
You haven't touched your gumbo.

Caroline Ellis:
What have you done to him?

Violet Devereaux:
I've made that special for you and you haven't even touched it.

Caroline Ellis:
What have you done?

Violet Devereaux:
He is my husband and I am his wife I will do whatever I want to him.

Caroline Ellis:
What have you done to him?

Violet Devereaux:
Oh, you've done something.

Caroline Ellis:
He's not safe in this house; not with you.

Violet Devereaux:
This is my house.

Caroline Ellis:
I'm taking him, Violet.

Violet Devereaux:
NO!

Papa Justify:
[Caroline is listening to the Conjure of Sacrifice record] From these chains, Lord, break me. From this prison, Lord, take me.

Jill:
What the hell is that?

Caroline Ellis:
[stopping record] Oh, um, it's just some local music...

Luke:
You know my mother used to say that if a lady invites you into her room, she probably isn't much of a lady.

Caroline Ellis:
Yeah, well, homegrown southern wisdom seems to grow on trees around here.

Hallie:
Are you a superstitious person, Caroline?

Caroline Ellis:
Not per se.

Hallie:
I told my mama where I was workin, she said that house has been nothin' but blood and tears. Said the old owners were some rich brother and sister, crazy people supposedly. Died of strokes right after they sold the place... Maybe they found something they shouldn't. Maybe now Ben did too. It may be their mess up there in that room, but ain't no ghosts put a spell on that old man. She did.

Caroline Ellis:
Do you believe that?

Hallie:
Don't you?

Caroline Ellis:
But I heard it can't hurt you. It can't hurt you if you don't believe.

Hallie:
Then I suggest you leave that house, before you do.

Luke:
Violet! I want you to meet somebody. Mrs. Violet Devoreaux meet Miss Caroline Ellis. Caroline, this is Violet Devoreaux she owns the house.

Caroline Ellis:
You have a lovely home. [Violet says nothing only walks away]

Luke:
I'm sorry, it's just sort of difficult having someone living here beside her.

Caroline Ellis:
I understand.

Luke:
Well, she's Old South she thinks women still curtsey. [Caroline laughs and smiles, she turns her attention Ben]

Caroline Ellis:
So, he can't talk at all?

Luke:
No, stroke pretty much paralyzed him.

Caroline Ellis:
Which side was effected? Left? Or right...

Luke:
Both.

Caroline Ellis:
Both...

Luke:
Happened 'bout a... month ago up in the attic. That's where she found him. Ben, you have a visitor... Meet me Miss Caroline Ellis.

Caroline Ellis:
Hello Ben. I'm Caroline.

Caroline Ellis:
[as she shows Luke pictures of the attic] That attic is full of that stuff. Old recipies, voodoo dolls, magic sticks and...

Luke:
I understand your cause for concern but my family is very superstitious, too. We're called Baptists.

Caroline Ellis:
Don't be a smartass.

Luke:
No really, that's a local color.

Caroline Ellis:
You said you were worried for him.

Luke:
Well yeah now I'm worried about you. Hm? Are you a nurse or are you a detective?

[from trailer]

Violet Devereaux:
I warned you about the mirrors.

[repeated line when looking for Caroline]

Violet Devereaux:
Where in damnation is that child?

Violet Devereaux:
[to Caroline Ellis] I told you and you heard me, no mirrors.

Violet Devereaux:
[to Caroline Ellis] You think too much about the time you have left- You don't spend it living.

Luke:
The weakness is the flesh. The flesh. The flesh.

Luke:
The flesh. The coil.

Luke:
The frail. The weak.

[repeated line]

Caroline Ellis:
I don't believe.

[minutes following the "Conjure of Sacrifice", as Caroline become Cecile, Luke walks into the attic]

Luke:
[as Papa Justify] Cecile? You all right?

Caroline Ellis:
[as Cecile] I'm fine now, Justify.

Luke:
A fair bit harder than the lawyer, wasn't it?

Caroline Ellis:
It gets harder every time. They just don't believe like they used to. Gotta get 'em all riled up.

Caroline Ellis:
The thing folks just don't understand about sacrifice... sometimes it's more of a trade.

[to a terrified struggling Caroline]

Luke:
Hush, hush, darling. I know it's hard. [drags her inside house and sorta keenly calls up the stairs to Violet] We're home!

[after extracting Luke's whereabouts from a terrified Caroline]

Violet Devereaux:
[to Luke] Don't scratch her up any more than she already is.

[after Caroline didn't understand his language]

Creole Gas Station Owner:
$17 for the gas.

Caroline!