![\"Keeper\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1464626_keeper_688482.jpg\")
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Dir: Osgood Perkins. US. 2025. 1hr 39mins<\/p>\n
For his third feature release in 18 months, horror director Osgood Perkins pays a visit to a traditional genre setting \u2013 the cabin in the woods. But just as he did with his previous two films Longlegs (about a serial killer) and The Monkey (about a cursed object), Perkins uses this familiar framework to anchor a slow-burn descent into hell, this time following a romantic weekend turning horrifyingly sour. It\u2019s certainly got the Perkins style and plenty of genuine chills, but the journey is more satisfying than the destination.<\/p>\n
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Should appeal to genre fans\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Opening in the US (via Neon) and UK (Black Bear) on November 14 before rolling out across various international territories, the film should appeal to genre fans attracted by Perkins\u2019 name and an effectively ambiguous marketing campaign. Keeper should do sturdy business in a similar ballpark to\u00a0The Monkey ($69m worldwide) but is unlikely to replicate the breakout success of Longlegs ($128m worldwide), which featured star names Nicolas Cage and Maika Monroe.<\/p>\n
The Monkey star Tatiana Maslany (also known for roles in TV shows Orphan Black and She-Hulk: Attorney At Law) is excellent as Liz, a no-nonsense woman who truly believes she has found her soulmate in softly-spoken doctor Malcolm (a nicely reserved Rossif Sutherland). The couple are spending the weekend in Malcolm\u2019s secluded upstate New York cabin \u2013 an impressive if foreboding expanse of wood and glass. A creepy opening montage, featuring various increasingly distressed women across, seemingly, various time periods, is an early indicator that not everything is as it appears. Certainly, the vibe seems off from the moment the door shuts behind them.<\/p>\n
Much like this year\u2019s Companion, which also dismantled a seemingly-perfect relationship over the course of a weekend in an isolated country home, red flags are festooned across the screen from the start. Screenwriter Nick Lepard is on more nuanced form here than he was penning the screenplay for recent shark-slasher Dangerous Animals, subtly twisting Liz and Malcolm\u2019s loved-up vibe by turning such affectionate epithets as \u201cshe\u2019s a keeper\u201d into quietly menacing threats.<\/p>\n
In this dialogue-light two-hander (Birkett Turton makes a brief appearance as Malcolm\u2019s creepy cousin Darren and Eden Weiss as Darren\u2019s taciturn girlfriend Minka), craft is key. Cinematography from Jeremy Cox lurks behind corners and makes the most of the cabin\u2019s vertiginous angles, while a discordant score from Erdo Van Breemen, which blends shrill strings, tribal drums and breathy human voices, helps establish a growing sense of unease.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s quickly clear that something is very wrong and, when Malcolm heads back to the city to see to an ailing patient, Liz begins to experience terrifying visions of hideous figures. She feels woozy and discombobulated, unsure of what\u2019s real, and decides she wants to leave. When Malcolm returns, he clearly doesn\u2019t believe her and \u2013 gently but firmly asserting his concern and his love \u2013 insists that she stay. Even without spoilers, most savvy audiences can likely guess the direction this is ultimately heading, even if the final reveal attempts to take things up a notch.<\/p>\n
Maslany is superb as Liz, effectively conveying just how quickly a level-headed person\u2019s strength and independence can be eroded, how coercive control can be an insidious, undermining presence. Elsewhere, effects work is superb and the otherworldly beings are nightmarishly rendered as they haunt the edges of the frame, blur into the background and move among the trees.<\/p>\n
Take away all that window dressing, however, and the film loses much of its power, its narrative a well-trodden story of a toxic heterosexual relationship in which one partner loses their sense of self, the film another example of female victimhood and terror as entertainment. And while the ending may promise some form of retribution, it is too little, too late.<\/p>\n
Production companies: Oddfellows Pictures<\/p>\n
International sales: Neon, hal@neonrated.com<\/p>\n
Producers: Chris Ferguson, Jesse Savath<\/p>\n
Screenplay: Nick Lepard<\/p>\n
Cinematography: Jeremy Cox<\/p>\n
Production design: Danny Vermette<\/p>\n
Editing: Graham Fortin, Greg Ng<\/p>\n
Music: Erdo Van Breemen<\/p>\n
Main cast: Tatiana Maslany, Rossif Sutherland, Birkett Turton, Eden Weiss<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dir: Osgood Perkins. US. 2025. 1hr 39mins For his third feature release in 18 months, horror director Osgood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-133276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}