A romantic trip to a secluded cabin turns sinister when a dark presence reveals itself, forcing a couple to confront the property’s haunting past. A film by Osgood Perkins, starring Tatiana Maslany, Rossif Sutherland, Birkett Turton, Eden Weiss, Cassandra Ebner, Tess Degenstein, Erin Boyes, Gina Vultaggio, Claire Friesen, Christin Park, Glen Gordon, Logan Pierce, and Dolores Drake.
KEEPER
Osgood Perkins
(2025)
While packing her stuff, Liz (Tatiana Maslany) has a video call with her friend Maggie (Tess Degenstein), who finds it amusing that a city girl like her would agree to spend time at a cabin in the woods. Liz admits it’ll be her first time there and mentions that she’s been with Malcolm Westbridge (Rossif Sutherland) for almost a year now. Maggie laughs and jokes that it must be an unofficial record for Liz, suggesting she’s never been in a relationship this long.
When Maggie asks if Malcolm wants kids, Liz says they haven’t really talked about it and that she’s never pictured herself as a mother. Before hanging up, Liz insists she’s happy with how things are and jokes that Malcolm doesn’t have a secret family with a wife and kids hidden in the basement.
Upon arriving at Malcolm’s secluded cabin, Liz is clearly impressed. However, she begins to sense something strange about the place but doesn’t say anything. When she notices a brown paper box on the dining table, she calls out to Malcolm, who’s in the other room hanging one of her paintings that he bought earlier, that someone left him a cake, judging by the chocolate smudge on the box. Malcolm says it must be from the caretaker, explaining that it’s her tradition of baking for him to make up for being so bad at actually taking care of the place.
Looking through the living room window, Liz spots another cabin across the way and asks Malcolm who lives there. Malcolm sighs and tells her it’s his cousin Darren. Liz looks visibly uneasy, though Malcolm assures her that Darren won’t bother them since he didn’t see his car, meaning he’s probably not home. Unbeknownst to Liz and Malcolm, the camera lingers on them from the second floor, where a shadowy figure quietly slips out of frame, as if someone or something has been watching them.
After dinner, they get a surprise visit from Darren (Birkett Turton), who shows up uninvited with his date, a model named Minka (Eden Weiss). Malcolm has no choice but to let them in. Darren introduces Minka, who acts strangely and appears intoxicated. He claims she’s from Eastern Europe and can’t speak or understand English. Darren then says he and Minka don’t want to intrude on Malcolm and Liz’s special night, and cryptically adds that Malcolm is the romantic one, the slow one in the family.
Earlier in the film, a sequence shows several women followed by screams and their faces covered in blood before the screen abruptly cuts to black, implying these women were victims. This makes viewers suspect that either Darren or Malcolm could be a serial killer, or worse, that both are working together to lure young women to their secluded cabins and kill them.
When Darren and Malcolm step out to talk privately in another room, Minka catches Liz’s eye and glances toward something across the table, saying, “Tastes like shit.” Confused, Liz looks over and sees the box of cake on the kitchen countertop. But before she can ask what Minka means, Darren returns to the dining room and escorts Minka back to his cabin. Before leaving, Darren tells Malcolm that Liz is a keeper, insisting he shouldn’t wait too long or let this one get away.
Moments later, while Malcolm and Liz are getting intimate in the dining room, Malcolm suddenly stops as if he just remembered something important. He insists Liz must try the cake, saying the caretaker makes incredible cake. Liz seems unenthusiastic, mentioning she doesn’t like chocolate. Despite her telling him she’s never liked chocolate since childhood and that they’ve been together almost a year now, Malcolm cuts a piece of the chocolate cake anyway and insists she try it. Feeling pressured, Liz eats the cake.
That night, Liz dreams of a waterfall with a female figure dancing beneath it, and a woman who resembles her lying on her side as a shotgun approaches from behind. Liz jolts awake in the middle of the night and wanders through the cabin in darkness. She goes downstairs and is inexplicably drawn to the leftover chocolate cake. Unable to resist, she devours the entire thing.
The next morning, Minka ventures into the nearby woods, muttering to herself about how much she hates peeing outside. Suddenly she hears an eerie groan in the distance. Spooked, she’s startled by an animalistic howl, but when she looks around trying to locate the source, she sees nothing. Moments later, she’s attacked and killed by a supernatural entity resembling tree root.
Liz becomes obsessed with sketching the women from her dreams. While walking in the woods with Malcolm, Liz is unknowingly drawn to a nearby creek where she experiences a vision of two boys emerging at the top of a hill, looking down at the creek where a pregnant woman dances slowly. As Malcolm watches Liz from a distance, she feels sick from the visions and crouches down. When she opens her eyes, she notices an old locket submerged in the water. Curious, she picks it up and opens it, startled by the picture inside.
Malcolm tells Liz he needs to return to the hospital in the city to care for a dying patient. He’s worried about leaving Liz alone at the house, but duty calls, and he promises to be back by 7pm. After Malcolm leaves, Liz calls Maggie, who’s upset to learn Malcolm left Liz by herself, joking that he made up the hospital emergency and is probably visiting his secret wife and kids. As Liz uses binoculars to spy on Darren’s cabin, she freezes when she spots what looks like a severed head in a plastic bag among the trash. But when she tries to look again, it’s gone. Liz feels relieved, thinking she must have been hallucinating.
Later, Liz encounters the apparition of Minka, who mysteriously appears in the kitchen alongside a disturbingly smaller version of herself. Both versions cryptically say, “I am inside now.” Frightened, Liz asks if Darren is around, thinking this must be some kind of prank. She looks outside trying to spot him. When she turns back around, Minka is standing right behind her with blood-covered hands, whispering not to scream because it will wake the children. Minka then shows Liz a vision of the same woman at the waterfall from earlier. This time, however, it’s from the woman’s perspective, as if Liz and this mysterious woman are one and the same. One of the boys fires a shot. Liz jolts awake and realizes she must have fallen asleep after drinking wine.
Darren shows up again uninvited, looking for Malcolm and saying he brought their traditional libations. Oddly, he seems surprised to learn not only that Malcolm isn’t home, but that Liz is still there, as if he expected her to be gone. Despite Liz trying to turn him away and explaining he should come back when Malcolm returns, Darren insists she let him into his own family home. Reluctantly, Liz opens the door. Once inside, Darren lingers, glancing around as if to confirm Malcolm really isn’t home, like he doesn’t believe her. When Darren pressures her to have a drink with him, Liz feels uncomfortable and excuses herself to the bathroom.
While hiding in the bathroom, Liz begins hearing strange noises throughout the house — distant clattering, heavy thuds, wood creaking, scuttling. She leans against the wall and door, trying to figure out what they are. Unbeknownst to her, Darren calls Malcolm but it goes straight to voicemail. He leaves a message saying everything’s taken care of, no need to call back. Darren then goes to the kitchen and grabs a cleaver. However, he’s attacked and killed by a shadowy entity. After everything goes quiet, Liz comes out of the bathroom looking for Darren, but he’s gone. In the kitchen, she finds his gold watch in the garbage disposal.
Directed by American filmmaker Osgood Perkins from a screenplay by Nick Lepard, KEEPER is a compelling horror film about a couple on a romantic getaway at a secluded cabin in the woods.
While the horror elements aren’t exactly groundbreaking, I love how the film builds tension and ambiguity around its mythology and mystery, keeping me on edge as I wondered what dark secrets lie buried on the property.
The cinematography by Jeremy Cox is stunning. The breathtaking landscapes combined with unusual framing that uses negative space creates a deeply unsettling atmosphere.
The film doesn’t rely on the jump scares you’d expect from a typical horror movie. (There are still a few jump scares, but they’re kept to a minimum.) Instead, the director uses ambiguity to create a genuinely unnerving experience. Inexplicable things keep happening in the cabin, mostly glimpsed out of focus or moving through shadows, which feels experimental yet absolutely terrifying.
When the creatures finally reveal themselves in the final act, I was very much impressed by their design, which is both striking and memorable. KEEPER is one of the best horror films I’ve seen in years.
KEEPER was theatrically released in the United States on 14 November 2025.
