Keeper (2025)

Malcolm tries comforting Liz in a quiet and calm moment.

Keeper is Osgood Perkins’ sixth feature film as director. Having seen only this, Longlegs, and The Monkey, it is easily the best film out of the three and the one I enjoyed the most. Judging from these three, I think Perkins’ best work is still ahead of him. With this film, in terms of transcending the horror film genre, he is not there yet, BUT he is getting closer.

Perhaps the reason I enjoyed it the most is because it has mostly one film location, a cabin, which in the genre’s history, has always served as a symbol of let’s say for example ‘spirit possession’ or of having a suspicious quality. The woods, or forest, for that matter have as well.

I enjoyed the unique look of the creatures of the house/ forest. They seem otherworldly and nebulous. We see one with a giraffe-like neck, some with a ‘slime’ oozing out of their mouths, and towards the end, one with three or more faces.

The majority of the movie relies on the performance of Tatiana Maslany, who plays Liz, a woman who has been dating Malcolm, played by Rossif Sutherland, who we believe to be a busy doctor, for a year now. They head to his cabin for a getaway. Maslany more than carries the film (she has a bit part, but strong part in The Monkey) and Sutherland has a great voice and a familiar presence onscreen.

Tatiana Maslany, who plays Liz, finally hears what her beau has been really up to.

What we will find out is that he basically plays a Norman Bates type of character.

Rossif Sutherland as Malcolm, in a very Norman Bates-like role, reveals his true intentions.

Like Longlegs, the film begins with POV shots, which very subtly creates suspense. And it has very subtle visual details that I always welcome (it’s a visual medium after all) like a strand of hair floating in the air that Liz notices when she first gets to the cabin and a heart emoji drawn on the window behind her as she meditates in the tub. And tons of reflections-of-her-shots; my favorite probably being the one of her off a table in between the wine bottle and wine glass.

What’s the deal with the cake in the movie? For me, it’s a MacGuffin device. It gets the story started and Liz’s ‘visions’ don’t begin really until after she wolfs down that cake. (I will go as far as to say without it, [and this experience] Liz does not get to the true knowing of self.)

In fact, before she eats the cake, she tells a friend over the phone, she never saw herself as a mother. That self-doubt will be resolved later.

Also, is that blood and limbs inside the cake?

The themes of the film certainly resonate; I’ve always said that objects have memories- and it is very true here. Cinema is the only art form that can truly depict this and Keeper is a ‘keeper’ in that regard.

There’s also self-actualization, self-acceptance etc. She enters the cabin with doubt and remains or ‘leaves’ with self-assurance.

The question of ‘Who are you?’ persists and this applies to both her and him. She’s been dating Malcolm for a year and in a way, she is still ‘acting’ in the relationship in order to be liked and accepted. But it takes this experience for her to come into her own and accept she’s really a ‘sidepiece’, if you will. I also find it interesting that the creatures accept her in a way.

Perkins is a very technically inclined director. Here, he employs lots of frame within frame shots and shots where the foreground is obscured with a wall, person, or other object. All very apt. In fact, I think his framing here and compositions are more interesting than the ones in Longlegs.

There are superimposition shots i.e. of the river flowing around her as she meditates in the tub and even the ethereal kaleidoscope image we see of her later in the film, all which give the film the technical and visual look and weight it deserves.

The many different versions of Liz depicted in a kaleidoscope image.

I have no issues with his technical and visual ability.

Another favorite shot or moment is of her toes slipping in the bathtub from above the water to below the water.

The visual influences are all there; The Shining (Liz wears a red sweater and we get a low angle of her as she locks herself inside the bathroom) and even 2001 Space Odyssey (the wall inside the cabin is like the monolith) etc. I think you get the point.

He knows his stuff. He has a sense of cinematic history and appreciation.

Tatiana Maslany and Osgood Perkins at Comic-Con in San Diego.

However, I think the next step for Perkins has to be the merging of style AND substance. I don’t think he has found the right story yet where he can marry both together and ‘scare’ us simultaneously.

Here, he does get close because he visually depicted Liz being in tune with the forest and river in an apt, intriguing way and it is well-executed. I engaged with the film more because of this and it made me a more active viewer.

Sidenote: A double feature that can work alongside is Alex Garland’s Men.