Keeper ★★½

The second new film from director Osgood Perkins released this year, Keeper follows Liz (Tatiana Maslany) as she embarks on a romantic getaway with her boyfriend Dr. Malcolm Westbridge (Rossif Sutherland). Together now for one year, Liz is overwhelmed with how happy she feels. This is unusual for her, both having a relationship that lasts this long and to feel so satisfied in one. Though leary of these feelings, she and Malcolm embark on a trip to a cabin in the woods that has been in Malcolm’s family for generations and is next door to his cousin Darren’s (Birkett Turton) place. The two cousins do not really get along, but the insistent Darren will make some pop-in appearances here-and-there. Aside from those visits, everything seems so quaint and perfect. This trip out of the city was just what Liz needed, until Malcolm announces that a patient of his is having trouble getting out of a medically-induced coma and he needs to return to the city for the day. Now, Liz is all alone in this big and old house with just her thoughts and something else to keep her company.

Keeper is at its best when it plays to Perkins’s strengths. The way he creates a sinister and uncomfortable mood is terrific. As Liz looks out the window early in the film and takes in the beautiful scenery around the cabin, Perkins and cinematographer Jeremy Cox deliver two very important shots. There is a shot from a tree looking at the house. Liz is looking down towards the river, but this voyeuristic shot from the tree gives the feeling that something is watching her. She is unaware of its presence, but it knows that she is there. As the camera cuts closer to Liz and shoots a low-angle close-up through the window, Liz is engulfed in a reflection of the trees from the forest. As she walks away, as shown in the reflection, something in those trees moves. Perkins expands by making every shadow within the home come to life. Liz starts to notice and feel things, while mysterious happenings occur just behind her or out of the corner of her eye. By the time she is confronted by more startling visions, are they just dreams? Is she losing her mind with loneliness and boredom? What was the deal with the cake that Malcolm encouraged her to try? The audience knows well before Liz does that something is truly awry, but until the climax comes around, Perkins keeps everything at a distance. Anything that gives it away is obscured, shown in ghostly lighting or shadowy visions, silhouetted horrors that could be something horrible or could be a weird shadow. All the while, the nightmarish reality of this home lingers out of Liz’s view, waiting for its chance to strike.

As with Longlegs before it, Perkins has Keeper perched on the edge of greatness through two acts. Then the final act comes around and it all falls apart. There is plenty of appeal in this final act, despite its flaws. The creature design is really disturbing and the folk horror elements are delightfully wicked and weird. But, so much of Keeper’s final third is spent explaining things. Rossif Sutherland is saddled with plenty of narration and explanation with every element Perkins put into place needing to be elaborated upon and reasoned. This demystifying of itself undercuts the tension and aside from a weird and very creepy scene in the basement, it ensures that Keeper fizzles out. Keeper works best when it is eerie and confusing. Things do not need to make sense for the film to be good or terrifying. This is a nightmare and nightmares rarely add up after you open your eyes and come back to reality. Thus, when Keeper tries it only serves to highlight the nonsensical nature of its story and characters while also, too often, stealing away moments that could be spent terrorizing the audience and the characters with everything that goes bump in the night and moves in the distance.

Keeper is helped by the great performance from Tatiana Maslany at its center. She gives herself fully to the material and the character. She nails this giddy young woman excited to see if this relationship is really as strong as she thinks with a mixture of excitement and nerves at the forefront. As things start to go awry, she has this withdrawn and melancholy nature about her that really sells how wayward Liz is beginning to feel. When strange occurrences start to happen in her peripheral and as the oddities mount, she sells every bit of fear and unease. She has a really great manic laugh and blood-curdling scream as well that, especially towards the end, is a great asset for the film with Maslany digging deep within herself for every beat of emotion. This is a twisted tale and one that needs a great performance to make it come to life, something Maslany delivers. Next to her, Rossif Sutherland and Birkett Turton are a bit awkward. Malcolm and Darren are meant to be distant, stilted, and odd so it is hard to lay the blame solely on Sutherland and Turton. Dialogue has never been the strongest element of a Perkins film and Nick Lepard‘s script is no exception, especially felt in the dialogue given to Sutherland and Turton. However, neither really sells the emotion either. They are just too disconnected, thus when Sutherland is tasked with explaining the mixture of emotions he has in being in this home with Liz, who Malcolm genuinely loves, it does not land with any punch.

Keeper is at its best when it is weird and creepy. It is all about its atmosphere, playing with Liz and the audience’s mind, laying out wild possibilities of what could be occurring in this home. By the time we know for sure and the dramatic irony of Liz not knowing occurs, Perkins really plays in making the audience uncomfortable, desperate for Liz to just turn around and look, but then it all fades away and nothing is there for her to see. Perkins knows every trick of the trade in making a haunted house movie click. He adds in the folk horror lore to make it really twisted and to turn both this home and these woods into living entities that adds to the voyeuristic disquiet of the film. But, then everything has to stop for it all to be explained. As with Longlegs, Perkins’s direction is great. The script is not and holds the film back from reaching the heights it had the potential to hit.