Osgood “Oz” Perkins has released some of the most divisive and thought-provoking films of the 2020s. I talked about how I was intrigued by what Perkins would cook up next in my review of The Monkey from earlier this year, noting that his unique voice in horror shines through his writing and directing. Nine months later, his new film, Keeper, hits theaters with yet another nightmare from the son of Norman Bates himself. While I hoped this film would continue Perkins’ winning streak, I was left feeling as if the rug had been pulled out from under me and the rest of the audience.
Keeper opens with a montage of multiple women across generations meeting, being romanced by, and ultimately brutalized by an unseen figure. This was the footage used in one of the early trailers played at the very end of The Monkey, creating the perfect amount of intrigue and fear to hype up Perkins’ next film. I immediately felt the film jumped the gun by opening with this same footage, as it did not slowly reveal all these different women to the audience to create mystery and build the film. Rather, it immediately spoonfeeds the theme of relational turmoil.
In Keeper, a young woman travels into the woods for a weekend with her boyfriend, only to find something sinister in his family’s vacation home. The first half of the film is where I had the most fun dissecting shots and moments between Tatiana Maslany’s Liz and Rossif Sutherland’s Malcolm. Maslany, in particular, is a core strength of the film, slowly descending into madness and fear bit by bit as it progresses. The first half mainly revolves around Liz creeping around the dark corners of Malcolm’s vacation home, and this is where the film is at its best. A psychological horror akin to Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession (1981) about relational unease was exactly what I signed up for. Maslany’s performance draws on bits and pieces of Isabelle Adjani’s iconic performance in Żuławski’s film. Still, she makes something of her own with some of the most frightening cries I have seen from an actress today. Unfortunately, this compelling first half feels rushed, and the film jumps to the answer to Liz’s turmoil instead of relishing in it to create fear and unease for the audience.
Perkins’ approach to haunting visual filmmaking continues in Keeper and is a staple of his best films (particularly Longlegs (2023) and The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015)). Innocuous corners are filled with intense dread, and the woods surrounding Malcolm’s vacation home contain chilling mysteries unbeknownst to our protagonist. Perkins knows how to linger just long enough on an empty frame to create tension before hinting at something sinister lurking within it. Additionally, he can create tension between actors that could be cut with a knife. Despite Perkins’ tense direction, the pacing works against him instead of in his favor. While his previous films build substantial suspense and intrigue through their slower pace, Keeper feels like more of a drag. I was left checking my watch repeatedly by the one-hour mark.
Unfortunately, Keeper blows its load too early, and the film’s third act is marked by a lengthy exposition dump that destroys any intrigue the film had going for it. If the opening montage jumped the gun, this exposition dump flew miles over it and left me feeling underwhelmed and a bit upset at the earnestness of it all. While something like The Monkey had a very basic setup and premise for audiences to digest, Keeper follows more in the steps of Longlegs and tries too hard to explain everything at once. I was left saying to myself, “That’s it?” and wanting more of the vague intrigue the film was building up until that point.
Where this falters the most is the fact that Perkins did not write this screenplay; instead, enlisting Nick Lepard to pen the script. There is a noticeable disconnect between Perkins’ direction and visual style and Lepard’s writing, which feels too surface-level for a Perkins picture hyped up by the likes of James Wan and Guillermo Del Toro. Sadly, Perkins’ visual style feels too high-brow for a script this mediocre.
Keeper is a significant disappointment as a consistent fan of Perkins’ previous work. Despite a compelling performance from Maslany and a solid first half, its rushed screenplay and uninteresting plot soured the film substantially. In comparison, The Monkey was one of the most surprising horror films of the year, and following it up with something as inconsistent as Keeper is night and day. I can only hope that this is a fluke and his next film, The Young People, is a hit, because this many films in two years was bound to have some negative consequences.
Review Courtesy of Nadia Arain
Feature Image Credit to NEON via IMDb