The only Osgood Perkins film I’ve seen that I enjoyed was his last one, The Monkey. I was hoping a little bit of that movie’s wacky momentum would carry over into his latest, Keeper. Well, I guess the “Glass is Half Full” take is that this is, in my opinion, the second-best Osgood Perkins movie. That is to say, it’s still not very good but it’s a lot better than something like Longlegs.
Tatiana Maslany (who was also in The Monkey) and her boyfriend (Rossif Sutherland) go to a cabin in the woods for some R & R. There, she eats some chocolate cake and soon begins seeing weird shit. Is the place haunted or was the cake laced with some sort of hallucinogenic? Or is it a bit of both?
One of the big reasons Keeper falls apart is the fact that Sutherland delivers one of the worst performances in recent memory. He’s just a non-entity throughout the movie. That wouldn’t be such a big deal if so much of the plot didn’t hinge on whether or not Maslany should trust him or not. Even in the scenes where he’s supposed to be threatening or menacing, he’s just sort of…there. Fortunately, Maslany anchors the film as best as anyone could’ve expected, given the circumstances. She gives a good performance, but the film that surrounds her just isn’t worthy.
Perkins does give the film plenty of atmosphere. The cinematography during the final sequences is also quite striking. The glass-walled cabin has a lot of personality too, which helps, especially during the scenes where Maslany is all by herself in the house.
I don’t mind being a patient viewer on slow burn horror movies like this if my patience is eventually rewarded. Well, there is a payoff to all the vague haunting and mysterious phenomena going on in the house. Whether or not it was worth the wait will probably depend on the individual viewer. Personally, I think it was a bit lackluster, but at least Perkins threw us a bone at the end. It’s just a shame it didn’t have any meat on it.
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