By George & Josh Bate
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Keeper
We rarely put together spoiler reviews, but there’s so much to unpack in Keeper that we had to do it.
First off, let’s briefly breakdown the full plot of Osgood Perkins’ latest film, then we’ll dive into all the questions we have and pose some answers, and finally we’ll give our thoughts on the movie.
What happens in Keeper?
The movie begins with brief flashes of a variety of women who are courted by an unknown individual, portrayed through the first-person perspective of the camera. The women are clearly from different eras, with one appearing to be from the 1950s or 1960s, another seeming to be from the 1800s, and others looking more modern. The film then cuts to our lead Liz, played by Orphan Black and The Monkey’s Tatiana Maslany. Liz travels with her boyfriend Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland) to the woods for a romantic stay in his family’s old cabin. From the beginning, it seems Liz isn’t entirely convinced that she loves Malcolm, a sentiment that is amplified by her friend voicing her suspicions that Malcolm has a secret wife and kids behind Liz’s back. Regardless of her uncertainties, Liz plows away with the trip and arrives at the cabin.
The cabin in question is gorgeous and isolated, with the only house nearby being a similarly structured cabin occupied by Malcolm’s asshole cousin Darren (Birkett Turton). Much like the Overlook Hotel in The Shining, Malcolm’s cabin has an elusive geography throughout the film – it’s difficult to make a mental map of all the rooms, doors, and exits, despite the entirety of the film unfolding within the home.
Waiting for Liz and Malcolm at the cabin is a homemade chocolate cake, which Malcolm says is baked by the caretaker of the house. After their romantic dinner is disrupted by Darren, Malcolm convinces a reluctant Liz to eat some of the chocolate cake. That night, despite previously saying she doesn’t like cake, Liz wakes up and eats the rest of the chocolate cake like an animal, almost as if she’s been possessed to do so. The next day, Malcolm wakes up to find Liz drawing disturbing images of the same women we saw at the beginning of the film.
From there, things get increasingly weird for Liz. She hears noises through the vents, an invisible person draws a heart on window condensation, and even sees a head in a garbage bag briefly. Amidst this craziness, Malcolm leaves Liz alone to take care of a sick patient in the city. While away Malcolm’s away, Liz is visited by Darren, who creepily asks about how she felt after eating the cake. As Liz hides in the bathroom, Darren picks up a cleaver from the kitchen and starts to walk toward Liz but, soon after, is shown with his head decapitated as he is dragged away by someone.
The creepiness ramps up considerably for Liz when she sees a woman with a plastic bag around her head at the cabin. Shortly after, Malcolm returns and is shocked to see Liz still there. Despite her better judgment, Liz decides to stay and crack open a bottle of wine with Malcolm, only to be unsettled when a slightly drunk Malcolm forgets the name of the patient he just cared for.
This is the last straw for Liz, who once again locks herself in the bathroom for protection. Here, Liz finds a black and white picture with Malcolm, a wife, and kids, which looks to be decades old. Malcolm makes his way into the bathroom and convinces Liz to go into the living room.
There, Malcolm gives Liz (and the audience) a big exposition dump. Essentially, over 200 years ago, Malcolm and Darren (yes, they were alive back then) shot and injured a pregnant woman bathing in a creek (the pregnant woman happens to look just like Liz by the way). Malcolm and Darren take the pregnant woman, who may or may not be a witch, back to their cabin and lock her in a stable with pigs. When they return later, the woman has given birth and her eyes have turned a silver/blue color. Malcolm explains to Liz that, afterward, the woman gave birth to various creatures that now occupy the cabin and are unaware of the power they wield. In exchange for Malcolm and Darren bringing women to the cabin for the creatures to feed on, the creatures extend Malcolm and Darren’s lives, essentially allowing them to achieve immortality. Malcolm intended to bring Liz to the cabin and drug her with the chocolate cake, at which point the creatures would feed on her. But his plot didn’t go to plan. Liz ate the whole chocolate cake and, for some reason, the creatures didn’t consume her.
A panicked Liz tries to flee but can’t find a way out. Eventually, she finds herself in the cabin’s basement with the creatures and the woman with the plastic bag over her head. The woman removes the bag to reveal a monstrosity of a face composed of all the faces of the women Malcolm and Darren have sacrificed to the creatures, including Liz. In the basement is what appears to be a memorial for the creatures’ mother.
That night, Malcolm goes to bed, happy that he was eventually able to feed Liz to the creatures and extend his life. However, in the night, Malcolm begins to cough excessively and his hair looks grayer. The camera then cuts to show an aged Malcolm hanging upside down in the woods. Liz, who now has the same silver/blue eyes as the witch, then approaches Malcolm and tells him that the creatures invited her to stay. Liz forces Malcolm to eat chocolate cake, after which his head is dumped into a bottle of some honey-like substance, subsequently turning him into what looks like a creature. The film then cuts to its credits while “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” by Elvin Bishop plays.
Let’s breakdown the (many) questions we have after watching Keeper.
What was Malcolm’s plan?
The answer to this question is fairly straightforward but worth explaining nonetheless. Malcolm’s primary objective is to extend his life and essentially achieve immortality. To do so, he lures Liz to the cabin with the intent to feed her to creatures, who will grant him immortality in exchange for Liz. This is something he has done many times before, to the women seen at the beginning of the film and through sporadic visions subsequently.
Why couldn’t Malcolm lure and sacrifice anyone? Why did he need to sacrifice women he ‘loved’?
The movie doesn’t quite answer this question. It’s possible that the creatures only desire people who are meaningful to Malcolm, thus why he can’t just pick up strangers and sacrifices them to the creatures.
What’s up with the woman with multiple faces?
The woman underneath the plastic bag with all those faces appears to be a manifestation of all the women that Malcolm and Darren sacrificed to the creatures. All the women seem to have been absorbed into a single, tortured being.
Why did Liz end up different than the other women?
Liz and the mother of the creatures are both played by Tatiana Maslany. Is Liz some kind of reincarnation or descendent of the mother? Or does Liz just share an uncanny resemblance to the mother? Either way, the creatures clearly recognize how Liz parallels the mother and seemingly decided to no longer abide by Malcolm’s rules. The creatures decide to appoint Liz as their new mother and betray Malcolm and Darren by consuming them.
Is Liz really Liz anymore?
We think the Liz we see at the end is still Liz, albeit a Liz that has been warped by the creatures in some way. Liz clearly has some of her old personality – it just appears that her motives have entirely changed, now serving as the mother to the creatures.
What’s up with the chocolate cake?
Last but not least, the chocolate cake. Why exactly did Malcolm want to drug Liz with the chocolate cake and why did eating the whole cake have the effect that it had on Liz? The answer to the former appears to be that Malcolm wanted to knock Liz out, making her easier to consume for the creatures. The answer to the latter, however, is more complicated. Our guess is that the overdose of sedatives from the cake gave Liz an unparalleled awareness of the supernatural phenomena around her, more than any other woman before. That explains why she was found, almost in a trance state, drawing all of Malcolm’s previous victims, faces and people she could not have possibly of known.
What’s next for Osgood Perkins?
Osgood Perkins’ next movie, The Young People, is currently in production. The film stars Lola Tung (The Summer I Turned Pretty), Nico Parker (How to Train Your Dragon), Heather Graham (Austin Powers and the Spy Who Shagged Me), Johnny Knoxville (Jackass), and Nicole Kidman (AMC commercials). Like Perkins’ previous three films, The Young People will be distributed by NEON. The film hits theaters in 2025.
What did we think of Keeper?
Ultimately, Keeper is a rare misfire for Osgood Perkins. Longlegs was our favorite movie of 2024 and The Monkey is one of our favorites of 2025, but Keeper is a far cry from the quality of either of these films. From the shot composition to the production design to score to performances, the movie is technically brilliant. Unfortunately, it lacks the intrigue and dread we’re used to seeing from Perkins, especially from his more recent efforts. The bulk of the runtime repetitively and tediously features Tatiana Maslany’s lead plagued by somewhat creepy imagery and sounds until a massive exposition dump of an ending arrives that underwhelms and raises more questions than it answers. In other terms, the journey isn’t that interesting and neither is the ultimate destination.