Keeper - Movie Review

Keeper volition beryllium released successful theaters connected November 14.

Osgood Perkins has had a precise engaged year. Just weeks ago, helium started accumulation connected his adjacent film, The Young People, aft kicking January disconnected beardown with The Monkey, 1 of my favourite films of 2025. Perkins is truthful engaged that he’s making movies portion he’s making different movies: Keeper, the latest of Perkins’ “dark trips” and a communicative of caller emotion gone wrong, was changeable during a accumulation interruption connected The Monkey forced by the 2023 actors’ onslaught nether an interim statement with SAG-AFTRA. A movie having an accelerated improvement and accumulation process doesn’t needfully mean it’ll person large issues (2004’s Saw was changeable successful 18 days), but the hazard definite does spell up. With Keeper feeling similar a slow-burn that ne'er gets cooking, that seems to person been astatine slightest partially the lawsuit here.

The model wiping fund connected Keeper must've been huge.

Keeper follows young creator Liz (Tatiana Maslany) and her doc fellow Malcolm Westbridge (Rossif Sutherland) arsenic they question to Malcolm’s household compartment to observe their 1 twelvemonth anniversary. From the leap Perkins and writer Nick Lepard (Dangerous Animals) dole retired precise small accusation astir Liz and Malcolm’s courtship, and not overmuch much arsenic the communicative goes, truthful we’re near to trust mostly connected the behavioral cues of Maslany and Sutherland’s performances to deduce wherefore they’re unneurotic successful the archetypal spot and, much importantly arsenic the communicative goes, wherefore Liz is consenting to rationalize Malcolm’s bizarre behavior. Maslany, for her part, does admirable enactment trying to support this happening connected the rails, turning successful a afloat committed and emotionally exhaustive show that astir single-handedly keeps the movie from becoming wholly unmoored. The method aspects of Maslany’s performance, particularly the authenticity of her simmering and spiraling emotions arsenic the communicative goes, good outpace the logic and reasoning being foisted upon her by Lepard’s script.

The immense bulk of Keeper’s problems are connected the page. Lepard’s publication intimately follows the movements of fearfulness movies with akin settings/setups (Gerald’s Game, Companion, and Midsommar each instantly travel to mind), but with small specificity to Liz’s circumstances oregon caller commentary connected bureau successful relationships. Liz is perpetually stranded making choices oregon ignoring informing signs which betray her spot and resourcefulness that some Perkins and Lepard look to beryllium trying to highlight. Liz is crisp arsenic a tack, noticing astir each reddish emblem that flies, and Maslany doesn’t fto immoderate of it spell by without throwing successful immoderate carnal oregon vocal absorption that grounds the enactment successful immoderate affectional reality, but the momentum of Keeper’s storytelling has small country to fto that cleverness truly shine. In its worst moments, Keeper feels similar the benignant of movie radical speech astir erstwhile they bemoan the self-seriousness of “prestige horror”, which is shocking fixed the one-two punch of Longlegs and The Monkey that Perkins is coming disconnected of here.

Rossif Sutherland arsenic Malcolm

As the feline Liz would hazard it each for, Rossif Sutherland is critically miscast arsenic Malcolm and ends up actively detracting from what Maslany’s bringing to the table. Keeper positions the grade to which Malcolm is alert of oregon complicit successful the unusual goings-on successful the compartment arsenic a root of hostility to beryllium escalated arsenic the communicative goes. But Sutherland - with his gravelly voice, distant manner, and imposing framework - leaves the spectator precise small crushed to judge Malcolm has Liz’s champion interests astatine heart, starting aboriginal connected with his being consenting to crook down her advances… until she eats a portion of cocoa cake, adjacent aft she tells him she doesn’t similar chocolate. Malcolm is astir cartoonishly detached and disrespectful of Liz’s boundaries, and that dynamic strands Keeper with 2 arsenic unattractive choices: either uncover Malcolm’s offputting behaviour arsenic genuine and person each of that abject creepiness consciousness wholly devoid of dimension, oregon propulsion the rug and uncover that he’s an guiltless successful each this, despite the abject creepiness.

As an exploration of bureau successful relationships, Keeper’s mostly a two-hander, but Malcom’s relative and neighbour Darren (Birkett Turton) drops by a mates times with Minka (Eden Weiss), an Eastern European escort who’s besides up successful the woods with a Westbridge lad for a play getaway. That out-of-whack equilibrium betwixt the performers of the cardinal narration repeats present successful the supporting one: Birkett Turton’s Darren is simply a coked-out resistance whose vale lad vocal fry wears bladed immediately, and portion Minka’s characterization is arsenic razor-thin arsenic you’d fear, Eden Weiss lands a mates large laughs with her unfastened disdain towards her play getaway with “dollar store Ellis from Die Hard.”

Tatiana Maslany arsenic Liz

Keeper’s shaky instauration ends up squandering its stronger elements, namely Maslany’s show and the beardown accumulation design, each of which evoke tranquility and information successful adjacent measure. Single-location fearfulness movies truly request that determination to beryllium some visually absorbing and functional, and the Westbridge compartment is simply a delight of sightlines and absorbing architecture for Perkins and manager of photography Jeremy Cox to explore. Perkins uses the bold geometry of the rooms to container Maslany wrong the framework successful times of attack, and the immense windows that marque up astir of the cabin’s walls to hint astatine information lurking successful the trees. The acheronian corners wrong springiness Perkins pools of acheronian to gully attraction to, mounting immoderate bully dread astatine times, but extracurricular of 1 oregon 2 effectual leap scares, Keeper seldom pays disconnected its ambiance oregon gathering hostility to peculiarly horrifying ends. Perkins does deploy immoderate bully surrealistic editing choices, often crossfading images implicit each different successful dreamy montage arsenic Maslany becomes enthralled by the powerfulness wrong the cabin, and isn’t acrophobic to spell large astatine times with well-done carnal and constitution effects successful the film’s 2nd half, either. But by the clip Maslany’s successful the heavy of it all, Keeper feels mislaid successful the dark, stumbling towards a decision that felt similar a forgone decision from the opening images of the film, a little montage that done imagery unsocial conveys astir the entirety of the thematic extent that's to follow.