Keeper (2025) – Review – By Jonny Numb

This review contains SPOILERS.

TL;DR Summary – I needed just a little more from Keeper…but it wouldn’t budge.

Keeper is Osgood Perkins’ third feature within a 2-year span. And while I like how it’s a
complete tonal contrast to the brutally tongue-in-cheek The Monkey, there’s something…missing
here.

I also say this because certain directors – like Yorgos Lanthimos and Luca Guadagnino and Ari
Aster – have been cranking out at least one picture per year…and, speaking for myself, a certain
exhaustion has settled in.

While I will never not spend the time and money to see Perkins’ films theatrically, there’s
something…missing in Keeper.

I know, I know…I’m repeating myself.

His impressive CV has proven a consistently bright presence within the often darkly uninspired
realm of horror cinema. That he makes it look so effortless contributes to the “magic” of what is
captured within the frame.

The last time Perkins directed someone else’s script (2020’s Gretel & Hansel), it translated into a
film that was not only brilliantly executed, but had an emotional resonance that helped guide me
through the grieving process after my father passed – not to mention the uncharted terrain of a
world screeching to a halt due to the pandemic.

What I’m saying is: he knows what he’s doing.

And while Keeper can be read, to a certain extent, as a continuation and modernization of the
folkloric elements of Gretel & Hansel, there’s something just…missing (there’s that damn word
again).

The more I ponder the film, the more dissatisfied and confused I feel.

Keeper is the second produced script by Nick Lepard (the other being this year’s Dangerous
Animals), and there’s a head-scratching clunkiness to the characterizations and progression of
events. It leans heavily on a crucial flashback sequence to fill in narrative gaps, but half-asses it,
as said flashback still leaves threads dangling, leading to an ending that should be cathartic for
our protagonist Liz (the excellent Tatiana Maslany), but instead whiffs at an undercooked
moment of empowerment.

In some ways, I recalled the unpleasant time I had with mother! (boy do I hate spelling out that
title), Darren Aronofsky’s chaotic Creation Fable set against the backdrop of a nightmarish,
stream-of-consciousness narrative positioning the Male Creator as God and Woman as a muse
built solely as a punching bag for the creator’s frustration and torment, boo-f***ing-hoo.
I mention this because Lepard’s script strings us along, leaving Liz (and the viewer) in the dark,
while lover Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland) – whose isolated woodland villa is used as a weekend
getaway – and his irritating brother, Darren (Birkett Turton) does some transparent scheming off-
screen.

This leads to Perkins employing all variety of Dutch angles to put the viewer perpetually on edge
(glancing around corners and over shoulders) and confined to Liz’s POV. In this regard, Keeper
is a feast consistent with the director’s previous visually and sonically assured works.
Filmmaking competence is not the issue here.

SPOILERS AHEAD! But for all of Maslany’s impassioned emoting, she’s at the mercy of a classic gaslighting premise (SPOILER): for the brothers to continue their selfish campaign of Eternal Life, they gotta periodically sacrifice a woman to keep the Woodland Gods happy. How all of this works isn’t very clear, to the point where Malcolm basically announces [paraphrase]: “these are the rules – I don’t know why, but that’s just the way it is.” Which, in a script that’s already half-baked, feels
particularly lazy.

Final Thoughts – I say this with a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for Perkins’
filmography, but…maybe it’s time for a well-deserved break.