‘Keeper’ review: An original and terrifying new Osgood Perkins haunt
3.5/5 creepy cabins
Osgood Perkins loves a dark hallway. His new movie Keeper proves that. Well, and so much more. The new king of horror is back with a new movie that will have you side-eying any romantic getaways for the foreseeable future.
While Keeper is Perkins’ weakest film yet, it is still a fascinating watch from beginning to end. Liz (Tatiana Maslany) agrees to go with her boyfriend, Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland), to his family’s cabin in the woods. What is meant to be a romantic getaway is actually a weekend of horrors for Liz as the shadows of the house are following her at every turn.
Keeper is a relatively contained story and, throughout its less than two hour runtime, Perkins weaves a hair raising story that even when a little too much still holds the audience’s attention. Yes, it isn’t his new Longlegs but there is something to enjoy in Keeper.
The real conversation about the film will definitely happen when more people see it because I do think this is a movie we all need to see and unpack together but there is a lot to talk about within Keeper that doesn’t ruin the allure of it. Maslany’s performance being one of them.
Liz is going through a lot. She starts the film as a happy girlfriend excited to spend a weekend with her boyfriend. But slowly she has to descend into this new way of thinking with moments of fear and misery mixed in. It isn’t surprising that the Orphan Black star nailed every emotion Liz was going through but it is fascinating to watch her play this woman who keeps everything bottled up inside.
Perkins and Maslany worked together earlier this year on this adaptation of Stephen King’s The Monkey and it is a collaboration that I hope continues.
Let weird horror movies thrive!
Sometimes, a horror movie can be as simple as Keeper ends up being. Perkins uses a creepy cabin to his advantage and so much of the fear built into this movie is our own fear of the dark and the unknown. Yes, it has deeper themes of toxic masculinity and the male need to be more “important” than a woman but that all feels somehow less important to the build up that Perkins does.
Yes, the pacing is slower somehow than Longlegs and it feels less frightening and more strained than his previous work but there is something special to Keeper. Maybe it is just that Perkins really allows silence and darkness sit in his movies and makes the audience feel as on edge as possible.
Keeper does feel like a slight downturn from his previous films but it is still well worth the time of horror fans. Do I want to go spend time with someone in a cabin? Not any time soon after this but it is going to be fun to look at the response to Keeper and see what exactly people enjoy about this new Osgood Perkins flick.
(featured image: Neon)
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