Plot summary

Caroline (Kate Hudson) is a 25-year-old hospice worker who cares for the ailing and the elderly, a job she chose to atone for ignoring her own dying father when she was a rock'n'roll manager. After her latest charge passes away, Caroline takes a job in Louisiana caring for stroke victim Ben (Sir John Hurt), who is bedfast and can't speak. Caroline becomes suspicious of the house, and Ben's cold wife Violet (Gena Rowlands) only adds to the creepy atmosphere. After acquiring a skeleton key, Caroline makes her way into a secret room in the attic where she discovers hair, blood, bones, spells, and other instruments for practicing Hoodoo. Violet says she has never been in the secret room, but that the items probably belonged to the original owners' two houseworkers, who practiced black magic and were lynched as a result. Noting that Ben had his stroke in the attic after entering the room, Caroline is determined to unlock the secrets of the house and rescue Ben from the horrors that hold him captive within.—Tickleberry