Keeper

Keeper is the third film directed by Osgood Perkins to be released within 18 months. With Keeper, he made a restricted arthouse offering.

Liz (Tatiana Maslany) is an artist who's about to celebrate her first anniversary with her doctor boyfriend, Malcolm Westbridge (Rossif Sutherland). Malcolm plans to take Liz to his family’s cabin in the woods for a weekend. However, when they go to the cabin, Liz starts to experience visions and dreams.

Longlegs made Perkins’ name as a director. It was a critical hit and a commercial success, making $128 million from a $10 million budget. His follow-up, The Monkey, was promoted that it was from the director of Longlegs. He’s responsible for two of Neon’s grossest films. Sadly, Keeper did not make it a hat-trick of success for Perkins.

Perkins has shown himself to be a versatile director. Longlegs was a supernatural version of The Silence of the Lambs, and The Monkey was a hilarious horror-comedy in the vein of the Final Destination movies. Keeper was a minimalistic film due to its small cast and setting, and was a slow burn. It has ended up being a divisive film, only earning a D+ score from CinemaScore users.

Keeper earned this negative reputation because of its slow pacing. Liz was alone for most of the film as she pottered around the cabin. Maslany was terrific in the film and the saving grace in the film, but she could only do so much to carry the film with her lack of characterisation. Keeper felt like it wanted to be an elevated horror but didn’t have enough to say like the greats in the subgenre, such as Get Us, The Lighthouse, and Midsommar. Nor was there enough appeal for more mainstream audiences.

Perkins attempted to create a creepy atmosphere, and there is a gradual ratcheting up. It started small with Liz’s visions and a monster appearing in the background and following her, although I did want to shout ‘look behind you’ like I was watching a pantomime. There was more peril as the film progressed, like an unwanted visitor and creepy beings becoming present. Keeper only got going when the film reveals the whole picture, and there was a genuinely horrifying creature. It was a barmy affair, which has been typical of Perkins’ previous films’ third acts. It was a shame it took so long to get there. It was a reverse of Alex Garland’s Men, where that film had a solid first two acts, but an insanely bad third act.

Keeper wanted to be a film about coercive control.  Malcolm presented himself to be a nice guy, but his behaviour became more troubling as time passed, like when he offered Liz a piece of chocolate cake. Keeper joins a growing cohort of # MeToo-inspired horror films and thrillers. However, the sci-fi film Companion was a better 2025 film that explored the issue of coercive control and how someone can fight against it.

A more positive aspect of the film was the score by Edo Van Breemen. It used a lot of percussion and felt like it would have fitted in another horror film.

Keeper was a film that had potential because of the central relationship and Maslany’s performance, but it was underdeveloped and underwhelming.