Keeper Review

 

Alright a new Osgood Perkins horror movie. Let's see if he killed it once again.

Keeper is a folk horror movie that's produced by Wayward Entertainment, Big Rodeo Films, and Oddfellows Pictures with Neon distributing. Osgood Perkins directing and Nick Lepard wrote the story.

The story is, to celebrate their one year anniversary doctor Malcolm takes his painter girlfriend Liz on a weekend trip to a secluded cabin in the countryside. At first it's a peaceful trip, but as time goes by strange things begin to happening around them and they'll soon learn the cabin holds a dark secret.

Why The Delay?

So if any of you read my review for the newest version of The Running Man, then you're fully aware that this was suppose to be uploaded yesterday. So what happened? Well believe it or not my dad called me up to help him rake up leaves. The reason for the help is because the front yard maybe regular size, but the backyard is huge. So that took up some time. Then next thing I knew I'm helping him rake leaves at my grandpa's because well, old man bad back, ya know. Usual old guy stuff. Then that took up some time. Then just my luck, I got a stomach ache. Wasn't even expecting that last to happen but it did.

First I'm tired because of raking leaves and then disposing of the leaves, then I'm feeling sick because of a stomach ache. So I decided to say f*ck it and just move this to Tuesday.

Initial Reaction

Now I was looking forward to this because Osgood Perkins has been on quite the win streak. Earlier this year I saw The Monkey and a fun time with it, then during the summer I got a chance to review his well received movie Longlegs. So with those two winning films in mind I was interested in what else Perkins had made.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

The story is the biggest slight issue. We get a very standard set up. Couple wants to do a romantic getaway to somewhere remote then next thing you know shit hits the fan because something scary appears. Now I did enjoy a lot of the horror elements which I dive into later, but this is one of those horror films where a lot of answers aren't explained. Now that I can work for many horror films, and I do enjoy horror films like that or just movies like that in general. It's a storytelling element that can work. But with Keeper not so much. I wasn't really frustrated with the story by the end of the day, but I wasn't really jumping up and down in excitement. I was just in a sort of "meh" mood by the end.

Pros

There's many praises to give this movie with one of them being the atmosphere. Despite story issues, Oz Perkins still creates stunning dread. There's just these incredible build ups to something or someone creeping up on you. You're also given a claustrophobic feel too, because we're only in this one cabin and having a feeling of being stuck there. Then there's the special effects. There's some great CGI and there's also some great practical effects. These effects shine greatly with the ghouls. Which I also want to praise the design work on them. Because the designs on them are grotesque and disturbing. The last thing I'll praise is Tatiana Maslany's performance. I may to this day still be pissed with that godawful She Hulk: Attorney at Law show, but Maslany was amazing. She really anchored all of the chaos and terror in this movie by giving us a relatable and vulnerable performance. She makes you love Liz when she's a kind woman, makes you feel bad for Liz when she has to act being scared by screaming until her voice cracks, and even does a great job going a little primal too. The story might be a bit of gray area, but Maslany does a fantastic job carrying Keeper.

This wasn't an overall lose for Osgood Perkins, it was more like a flawed yet still good attempt. The movie provides plenty of scares, but when it came to answers to questions you don't get a lot.

My final rating is, Okay.

So that's all for now. Sorry if I was a day late. Hopefully that won't happen again since we're getting closer and closer to closing out 2025. Anyways, come back on Thursday, Nov 20th, for my A Look Back at review of Zootopia. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.