Giving full reign to their imaginations, Softley and his accomplished team of creative and technical artists fashioned an astonishing backdrop upon which the haunting story plays out, all amidst a fascinating and slightly foreign world of decaying and exotic beauty prevalent in New Orleans and the surrounding bayou.

“I love making a film that could only have taken place here,” says Softley. “I wanted to create an atmosphere that had a gritty, rich photographic look, but at the same time felt a bit strained. I believe that the mood of a place is what creates intrigue and draws in the audience. Kate’s character is a hospice worker—her job is to help people die. This is a central theme to the story and I feel it’s interesting to set a story like that in a place like New Orleans, a place rich in history, where you could say that so much has died in the past. This part of the South has a limpid, rainy quality that is always changing, which give us the opportunity to show the characters in different lights.”

In creating the mystical world of The Skeleton Key, Kruger had included as its centerpiece a particular kind of magic known as Hoodoo, still practiced by some in the bayous and rural areas and utilized for a variety of purposes—healing, control, good (or bad) luck. The practice, to the unschooled, is easily confused with the far better known religion of Voodoo, brought to New Orleans by Haitian slaves in the early 1800s—the religion became so popular there that the Catholic church issued an edict banning all non-Catholic practices within the city limits; the followers of “Voudoun” then moved their ceremonies to Congo Square (now Louis Armstrong Park).

Screenwriter Kruger explains, “While doing research on the supernatural I stumbled on the term Hoodoo, which is essentially an American system of folk magic beliefs. It’s not a religion, whereas Voodoo is a West African Haitian religion. Hoodoo is much more secular and can incorporate numerous religious belief systems. Hoodoo is primarily witchcraft, root work, spells, potions and conjurations. It was brought to this country by slaves from Africa and intermingled with Native American botanical knowledge and European Christian, Jewish and pagan folkloric systems which, when they all came together in this melting pot of a country, created a uniquely American sort of folk magic. It’s an amalgamation of many beliefs.”

Hoodoo, also called “conjure,” emphasizes personal power. Practitioners create a spell (called “conjure,” “trick,” “fix” or “hurt”) in order to heal, protect, attract or, sometimes, harm others. These conjures call for a variety of botanicals, oils, spices, candles and music. The presence of the practice of Hoodoo and the Voodoo religion in New Orleans has become deeply ingrained in the local culture. In a place where many of the worlds’ religions have intermingled and evolved and where the dead are never far away (because of the city’s high water table, coffins are not buried but entombed in above-ground crypts), an aura of superstition abounds. A mere belief in a Hoodoo curse or the power of Voodoo is often enough to bring about the aims of the conjures—the belief is more powerful than the supposed magic itself.

Delving into the world of Hoodoo required a lot of research on the part of not only the screenwriter, but the director, producers, production designer John Beard and set decorator Beauchamp Fontaine.

“We began looking for spells, wish tails and all kinds of creepy gris gris bags,” explains producer Stacey Sher. “We actually found original Haitian recordings and real conjures, until all of a sudden our lives were filling up with animal bones and skulls. Frankly, it all started to really creep me out. I began to feel I needed to see a witch doctor just to protect myself.”

Set decorator Beauchamp Fontaine, who holds a Master’s degree in cultural anthropology, immersed herself in local culture and folklore. “Our team’s aim was to create a powerful representation of accuracy, which entailed a great deal of research and digging. We found New Orleans author Catherine Yronwode, who wrote Hoodoo in Theory and Practice. We went over the script with her, scene by scene, to ensure accuracy. We even painted the underside of the roof in the Devereaux house blue, because that’s what they do in the South, to keep the birds from nesting and roosting up under the eaves. Even if the audience is not aware of these details on a conscious level, it creates a mood that will make it worthwhile.”