Keeper ★★★

Released: 14 November 2025

Director: Osgood Perkins

Starring: Tatiana Maslany, Rossif Sutherland

“Like a surreal David Lynch movie” (according to none other than Eli Roth) is certainly one way to sell Keeper, the latest venture from director Osgood Perkins. The film, of course, bears practically no similarities to the works of the late master, but it is a curious case of marketing tactics that aim at a certain niche of online film discourse — one that is bound to be (rightfully) bemused by the tautology. If anything, Keeper is a contemporary film to a fault: an expertly staged genre piece that chooses to overexplain itself in lieu of leaving the audience with questions, a nightmarish mood piece that’s strangely discordant with its conventional approach to a horror narrative. 

At its core, this is a “cabin in the woods”-type genre film centring around Liz (Tatiana Maslany) and Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland), as they venture out to a remote family cabin for their anniversary trip. When they reach the secluded refuge deep in the woods, strange things start to happen: Liz starts witnessing strange visions, Malcolm’s cousin suddenly arrives unannounced, and the house starts to feel less like sanctuary and more akin to a trap. 

Perkins has become a somewhat controversial figure in the horror circles post-Longlegs, which is a bizarre phenomenon considering he’s one of the more introspective and empathetic genre craftsmen working today. The Blackcoat’s Daughter (aka February) is still one of the most striking debuts of the 2010s, showcasing the director’s acute awareness of psychological dread and methodical tension building. But if Keeper and The Monkey are any indication, Perkins’s strengths lie in the way he directs his own material, rather than working alongside collaborators — an excellent formalist can only do so much with subpar writing. 

Keeper is at its best when the film decides to revel in its disquieting moodiness: lensed from uncomfortable angles, full of haunting negative space and Hieronymus Bosch-eque designs. It’s the dense atmosphere that really makes the film shine, highlighting a stark blend of two wildly different sensibilities: Perkins with his nuanced, visually eclectic directing and writer Nick Lepard’s (the scenarist behind this year’s glorious Aussie horror, Dangerous Animals) approach that’s closer to schlocky genre fare with a pinch of dark humour. 

Yet there’s a distance to the film’s sensitive beats, one that is rather unusual for Perkins. Liz’s psychological state remains a mystery until the very end, a deliberate choice that comes at the cost of an emotional connection that’s vital for a “relationship horror” like this. Perkins frames the turmoil through gorgeous dissolves and strikingly nightmarish visuals, yet the writing focuses too much on driving the narrative forward for it to render as a mood piece. There’s a bizarre dissonance to the film, almost as if the two creatives clash in their ideas for what Keeper should ultimately register as. 

All of the films directed by Osgood Perkins have an autobiographical touch to them, processing the director’s personal traumas on screen — an aspect that is minimized to a single symbolic gesture in Keeper. It is a haunting work that seems to be caught up in its genre trappings, a pretty but uninviting folk horror film that’s slightly let down by the need to spell out its most beautiful thematic threads.