10 Worst Fates Suffered By Final Girls In Horror Movies

While The Skeleton Key might be a frightfully dull horror movie, to say that Kate Hudson's protagonist's circumstances are unenviable by the conclusion would be an understatement of gross proportions.

Caroline Ellis is employed by Luke Marshall - an attorney representing the Devereux family - to care for the elderly Benjamin, who is essentially catatonic as the result of an apparent stroke. Caroline soon begins to suspect the presence of "hoodoo" Black Magic, after discovering a grisly array of ritualistic items and witnessing incidents that appear to be supernatural in nature.

Ellis' dogged investigation is ultimately her undoing. The Skeleton Key's finale reveals that Marshall and Benjamin's wife Violet are actually two African-American slaves from nearly a century ago. "Mama Cecile" and "Papa Justify" have survived by using hoodoo to transfer their consciousness into the bodies of others. Once they have swapped hosts, the ousted consciousness is paralyzed with a concoction and trapped inside the dying body, utterly powerless to resist.

To make matters even more nauseating, "Violet" reveals to Caroline that for hoodoo to work, the victim must actually believe in the concept. By bravely digging into the mystery, Ellis actually allowed these insidious powers to work their malevolent magic.

Caroline is carted away by paramedics in Violet Devereux's paralyzed body, presumably doomed to spend the rest of her days trapped in this Hadean prison of her own making. Welp.