Osgood Perkins, known for his varied contributions to the horror genre, has released a new film, Keeper, a surrealist story centered on a couple spending their anniversary in a remote cabin. Despite high expectations and Perkins’s previous successes, this Osgood Perkins horror movie falls short, struggling to provide a clear source of fear or cohesive story, ultimately disappointing fans and critics alike.
Having gained attention for works like Longlegs and The Monkey, Perkins’s productivity as a horror director stands out, with many anticipating how he would challenge and expand the genre. However, Keeper begins with intrigue and unsettling imagery—women screaming, and shots framed with an offbeat perspective—only for that tension to fall away as the film loses its narrative direction. As each scene unfolds, viewers are left asking what kind of horror lies at the core, with few answers provided.
Aimless Narrative and Elusive Horror Elements
In the film’s opening moments, Tatiana Maslany’s character Liz finds herself unnerved when an ethereal handprint appears on a fogged-up window behind her in the bath. The audience is shown unsettling dreams and visions of shrieking women, but little context is given for their meaning. Small character quirks, such as Liz’s secret indulgence in chocolate cake despite her claimed dislike for chocolate, further muddy the narrative waters, raising questions with no satisfying explanations.
The film flirts with familiar horror devices—at one point, a character encounters what could be a creature in the woods, suggesting a creature-feature direction. Yet, this thread is promptly abandoned, leaving uncertainty about the supernatural threat’s nature or purpose. Liz’s repeated sketches of terrified women add to the confusion, but lack the necessary emotional or psychological framework to provide stakes or fear.
Although the film’s secluded setting—a cabin in the woods, removed from access to help or civilization—typically breeds high tension in horror, here, the potential is largely unrealized. Rather than honing in on the relationship dynamic between Liz and her partner Malcolm (played by Rossif Sutherland), Keeper delivers surprisingly thin characterization and fails to leverage their isolation to develop meaningful conflict or drama.
Lack of Character Depth and Cohesion
Both Liz and Malcolm are depicted as bland and under-developed, despite sharing a romantic history that could have added psychological complexity to the narrative. A story about a couple trapped together, isolated and confronted by their fears, offers limitless opportunities for dramatic horror, but Keeper does not explore those possibilities. Instead, the motivations and internal worlds of its leads remain elusive throughout the film. Tatiana Maslany’s portrayal of Liz swings unpredictably from grounded and relatable to puzzlingly bizarre, as scenes of her gorging on cake or behaving in an erratic manner seldom lead to deeper understanding or suspense.
This disjointed experience pervades both the film’s characters and overall story. Questions accumulate without answers, the threat remains nebulous, and the logic of events proves difficult to decipher. While strong horror often hinges on mysteries that pay off later, Keeper instead overwhelms viewers with plot threads, never resolving them in a way that clarifies its intent or inspires effective fear.
One notable sequence involving a neighbor entering the cabin while Liz is home alone attempts to generate tension, building suspense before abruptly losing momentum, resulting in an anticlimactic release. Such scenes highlight the film’s tendency to introduce horror tropes—home invasion, supernatural entities, psychological tension—without committing to any single direction long enough to build dread or investment.
Genre Confusion and Unfulfilled Potential
Keeper’s genre identity proves elusive at nearly every turn. The film oscillates between motifs and themes—flirting alternately with the conventions of a home invasion thriller, a supernatural ghost story, a woodland creature feature, and even a meditation on romantic relationships. The result is a film that seems eager to try multiple horror subgenres at once, yet unwilling to develop any with sufficient focus. Images such as frightening paintings coming to life or sudden visions in the living room are included seemingly at random, without cohesion or logic tying them together.
It is only in the final act that Keeper begins to offer explanations and unveil some of its mysteries, bringing disturbing imagery that hints at the nightmarish potential its opening promised. Visually, the film’s cinematography deserves recognition for its consistently haunting atmosphere. Nevertheless, these delayed payoffs and aesthetic virtues arrive too late to redeem an experience dominated by vagueness and narrative confusion. Lingering questions, such as the significance of the opening handprint scene, remain unanswered, giving the impression of scares inserted for effect rather than story.
Ultimately, Keeper stands as a frustrating misstep for Osgood Perkins, whose previous films often blended style and substance to stronger effect. Here, underdeveloped characters and scattered ideas overwhelm any sense of intended meaning or fear, undermining the strength of the film’s unsettling images and isolated setting.
Critical Reception and Aftermath
The reception of Keeper, as assessed by ComingSoon, is notably negative, with a score of 3 out of 10, reflecting substantial shortcomings in execution. According to the outlet, this rating corresponds to media that feels burdensome to engage with and is considered “Bad.”
Even with glimpses of technical artistry and sporadic moments of intensity, Osgood Perkins’s attempt to push boundaries with his latest project demonstrates the risks of veering too far from narrative clarity and character engagement. With Keeper struggling to define its identity and leaving audiences questioning its intent, the legacy of Perkins’s horror filmography now includes a cautionary example of how ambition can sometimes falter without a strong core.
Looking ahead, fans of Osgood Perkins and actors like Tatiana Maslany and Rossif Sutherland may hope that his next effort will recapture the focus and emotional impact that marked his earlier works. For now, Keeper serves as a reminder that even bold creative risks require clear vision and narrative discipline to deliver true cinematic scares.
