Keeper (2025) | Come on, Baby, Don't Fear the Keeper

Last year was the year of the demon seed movie, in which I watched multiple movies around the same theme. This year is the Osgood Perkins year in the same way that I had no intention of watching three horror movies by the same director, just as I had no intention of watching movies about women being impregnated by something supernatural. While I would say that each of my Osgood Perkins film-viewing experiences has been vastly different from each other, I’m not sure which year I prefer in terms of overall quality.

Pros

Creepy imagery and designs
Pretty photography and cinematography
Actors put in some good performances
Under two hours

Cons

Unlikable characters that make dumb decisions or say dumb things
World-building and rules of the fantasy elements are not clearly defined, despite being “explained”
Weak pacing that makes the story drag

Plot & Thoughts

Liz (Tatiana Maslany) and her boyfriend Malcom (Rossif Sutherland) have traveled to Malcom’s family cabin, secluded in the beautiful wilderness. Malcom is a doctor who is typically very busy, often making him unavailable to Liz in a way that makes her somewhat suspicious as to whether or not she’s his only love interest or if she’s the secret side girlfriend of a man who has a family elsewhere. After a surprise visit by Malcolm’s cousin, Darren (Birkett Turton), and his fling, Minka (Eden Weiss), things get awkward between Malcom and Liz when he forces a chocolate cake upon her. She has a few strange dreams, more odd interactions with Malcom and Darren, and something malicious in the woods seems to be lurking, driving Liz to the brink of sanity.

Perkins, his DOP, and his cinematographer have proven to frame shots in really interesting ways with their movies, and it’s no different with Keeper. All of the movies I’ve seen by him have looked visually interesting as a result, making them stick in your mind well after the fact. Keeper has many of those moments, but where it deviates is in how those shots linger or take a while to establish. Unlike Osgood Perkins’ other horror films, Longlegs and The Monkey, Keeper moves at a glacial pace. I couldn’t help but think of Hereditary, another visually striking movie that takes its time with each scene in a way that makes a movie that is under 2 hours feel like 3.

The thing about Hereditary, though, is that I felt like I understood what happened in it and what everything meant when it was all over. That was a film that played with weird mystical elements across generations, much like Keeper does, but it comes away making a lot more sense. By the end of Keeper, I was confused as to what the “creatures” were, what they were doing, how they really tied into the antagonists and the protagonist, and what precisely happened at the end. That isn’t to say the movie gives no explanation; it most certainly does. The explanation just doesn’t really make me feel like I got any answers to my questions. At the very least, when the creepy things started showing up, it was something like a shot in the arm to keep things interesting, especially because they had some interesting designs.

I’m mostly being vague because I knew very little going into Keeper, and the intrigue about what was happening was the most compelling thing about it. So, I’d rather not ruin the experience for anyone else by divulging details. It was my curiosity that propelled me towards the film’s conclusion and helped me prevent my spouse from turning it off out of sheer disinterest or dislike for the main character.

What about that main character? Liz is not the dumbest nor most unlikable protagonist in a horror film, but she doesn’t do herself many favors, and the movie seems almost determined to make her come across in some negative way. There are multiple points in Keeper in which she’s put in an awkward situation that she could have avoided, but made the wrong choice each time. She starts off somewhat aloof about her relationship, but then later presents herself as too attached to see things clearly and make the right choices. She mostly comes across as a bitch in the first half and an idiot in the second. It’s no fault of Tatiana Maslany, who definitely tries in certain scenes; unfortunately, her efforts are wasted because the movie did as much as it could to make me not really care what happened to her.

TL;DR

Keeper is a slow, mostly dull experience involving characters that are either just as dull as the film around them or are simply unlikable. Even though it’s less than two hours long, it feels like a slog to get through until you finally reach the point where the creepy imagery and creatures start showing up. The actors do a fine job with what they’re given, which isn’t enough to make me care about their characters, unfortunately. While I think Keeper continues the trend of Osgood Perkins’ sense of style with his direction and cinematography, the overall quality of his movies is declining with each film I watch. It might be best to just watch Longlegs again rather than this.

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