Keeper (2025) is Osgood Perkins’ sixth feature length film, and third movie released by the director in the span of 18 months. Distributed once again by Neon, Keeper follows the back to back successes of Longlegs (2024) and The Monkey (2025), but out of the three Keeper is far and away the most divisive.
When Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland) takes his girlfriend Liz (Tatiana Maslany) on a weekend trip to his secluded cabin in the woods for their one-year anniversary, Liz becomes haunted by strange visions and noises and begins to fear that Malcolm isn’t exactly who she thought.
First off, I have to give Tatiana Maslany her flowers for her performance in the lead role here. I think the only work of hers that I’m familiar with currently is her role in She-Hulk, which she is very good in, but her performance here absolutely blew me away. There’s moments in this movie, with one particularly poignant example in the third act, where you can just feel the fear and terror from the performance seep through the screen and it makes those moments more impactful. There isn’t much in terms of script to connect the audience to the characters, but Maslany’s powerful performance does wonders for this.
As a director it certainly feels like Oz Perkins is becoming more confident in himself and his capabilities behind the camera but the script from Nick Lepard leaves a lot to be desired — creating a sense of “style over substance”. The foundation of the story is quite tired and trope-y while the structure and the pacing are all over the place. The middle portion in particular feels aimless and repetitive, with my interest being kept alive almost solely by the impressive visuals on display. While I don’t think the script is effective in crafting the mystery, the tension built within the movie through the increasing paranoia was credible enough to carry my investment through to the end. Although when the reveal took place I would be lying if I said I didn’t like it — even if the exposition dump wasn’t the best way to do it!
Despite having some pretty critical issues with the script, the story and the structure, I can’t find it within myself to dislike this movie, and a huge reason for that is the visuals, atmosphere and everything to do with the creatures. The sequence in which Maslany’s character comes face to face with all of the creatures for the first time is haunting. Horror movies often struggle to provide a satisfying depiction of an, up until that point, unseen creature because the audience’s imagination will always conjure something worse; however Perkins seriously delivers on this from my perspective. These are some of the most unsettling and disturbing creatures I’ve seen possibly ever. Another thing to mention which adds to the atmosphere considerably is the sound design. It also lends to the aura around the creatures which linger off screen for the majority of the movie — the “thing in the walls” trope actually feels used quite effectively.
Another major issue I had on first viewing is the ending scene. The penultimate scene which sees Malcolm waking up, only for him to be rapidly aging, was enough to infer that Liz and the creatures had developed a connection and ended the deal Malcolm and the creatures had. I suppose the confrontation between Liz and old Malcolm gives a sense of closure to Liz’ character and ultimately feels necessary for that, but simultaneously it felt like all of the subtlety was sucked out of the ending with it.
The division I feel towards this movie reminds me of the sort of frustration another horror film gave me: Men (2022). Both feature a pretty strong visual style, some fantastic effects, and an ominous atmosphere reminiscent of folk tales and twisted fairy tales. However the pair also lack in the writing department, contrasting the well crafted atmosphere with poorly written scripts and social commentary which leaves a lot to be desired.
Keeper was released in 2025 to divisive reviews in comparison to Perkins’ previous two works and, while not quite as strongly, it would be difficult for me to disagree with that consensus. Despite its weak script and undercooked themes, Keeper won me over with its terrifying atmosphere, insane visual choices and a phenomenal lead performance from Tatiana Maslany.
7/10
