World News

Keeper Ending Explained: Liz’s Fate And Malcolm’s Secret, Explained

November 14, 2025

The following contains spoilers for KeeperKeeper is a harrowing horror story that takes some very dark turns as it reveals the full scope of Malcolm’s history and Liz’s fate. The Osgood Perkins horror movie is an experiment in pure atmosphere, with much of Keeper‘s plot was kept a secret during promotion for the movie.

Keeper ends up having some very clever twists that play into the movie’s themes, even as the actual mechanics and specifics of the film’s supernatural elements remain purposefully ambiguous. The result is a film that keeps its focus on Liz and Malcolm, with their eventual fates reflecting a clear condemnation of a typical unfair power dynamic taken to the extreme.

What Are The Creatures In Keeper, And Why Do They Want Liz?

The creepy entities stalking Malcolm’s cabin in the woods never get a full explanation in Keeper, but their powers and desires make them uniquely haunting and quietly tragic. For much of Keeper, the exact nature of the entities stalking the house and moving through the surrounding forest is kept from the viewers.

Part of their origins are revealed by Malcolm late in the film. The creatures were seemingly the result of a pregnant woman from centuries prior who encountered a young Malcolm and Darren after ending up on their family property. Believing her to be part of a religious order that kept intruding on their land, they wounded and captured the woman.

While captured, the woman gave birth to several creatures. While Malcolm and Darren murdered the woman, they bargained with the creatures. Their true purpose and identities remain mysterious for the entire film, as their exact origins are never explained. However, they are capable of making a deal with Malcolm and Darren, extending their lives in exchange for sacrifices.

Notably, Malcolm admits he has no idea what the creatures actually are. He’s found a way to communicate with them, but it’s never shown on-screen. As a result, the audience is left in the dark about the specifics about the beings, their full origins, and what they really are.

Liz is meant to be the next sacrifice to the creatures, one of many women who have been targeted, isolated, and then fed to the creatures. These women are the spirits that Liz sees throughout the film, hinting at her potential fate if she doesn’t escape the cabin.

Malcolm Is The True Villain Of Keeper

While the mysterious entities are the main threat of Keeper, they aren’t the primary antagonist of the film. That would be Malcolm (and to a lesser extent, Darren), who have been manipulating women for centuries to ensure their immortal lives. Throughout the film, Malcolm tries to present himself as a cordial, sweet-natured doctor.

He’s sweet, if a little awkward. However, all of this is a facade. While he argues that he truly loves Liz, he still has no real hesitation in leaving her to die at the hands of the entities. He and Darren even apparently celebrate after each sacrifice, going by Darren’s arrival following Liz’s intended death with a bottle of whiskey.

Malcolm is representative of the concept of the patriarchy, unending in its sense of emotionally distant power and calculating sacrifice. When Liz screams from the basement in the finale, Malcolm just turns the music up and ignores it. When he’s finally exposed and the power dynamic flips, his genial personality gives way to screaming and begging.

Malcolm is every quietly domineering and abusive man. This is reflected in one of the creatures, who has many faces that resemble all the women he’s sacrificed, just a few faces in a long line of broken lives. He presents himself as kind and unassuming, but is ruthless, manipulative, and ultimately more monstrous than the creatures he feeds women to.

Why The Entities Spare Liz

While Malcolm has gone after plenty of women over the years, Liz was chosen because she physically resembles the mother of the creatures. Deciding that the creatures would appreciate that, Malcolm spent months lulling Liz into a false sense of security so he could lead her out of the city.

This proves to be a fateful mistake, however. It turns out that the creatures do see the resemblance, even showing Liz the pickled and preserved head of their mother to highlight it. However, they are immediately loyal to Liz as a result. They repeatedly have opportunities to kill her, but always spare her life.

When Darren tries to kill Liz, the creatures slaughter him before Liz is even aware of what’s going on. When they surround her in the basement, they embrace her as a maternal figure instead of attacking her as a meal. The reason Liz and the mother are connected is never explained, leaving the audience with plenty of questions.

However, that’s ultimately less important to the film than the fallout of their discovery of her. The creatures swarm Liz, but accept her as their mother, something Liz seems to take in stride by the end of the film. It also sets up the final scene of the film, wherein both Liz and Malcolm are left forever changed.

Liz And Malcolm’s Fates In Keeper, Explained

In the final scene of Keeper, the entities undo their deal with Malcolm and capture him. Malcolm rapidly ages as a result. Leaving him strung up by his feet from a tree, Malcolm is confronted by Liz. Now with the same black eyes as the creature’s mother, she reveals she’s decided to stay with the entities.

While Malcolm screams and begs, Liz casually tells him that it’s her cabin now, before feeding him the cake he drugged her with and lowering his head into the sappy substance that the monsters kept their mother’s head in. It’s a complete power reversal of their prior conversation, with Liz now the casually cruel victor over Malcolm’s desperate pleas.

The ending of Keeper seems to suggest that Malcolm will face long-overdue punishment for his crimes. Although his actions haven’t been exposed, the litany of women he’s sacrificed have finally found a semblance of justice. Meanwhile, Liz’s final fate is more ambiguous. It’s unclear how much she is still in control, or if she’s truly the mother reborn.

The True Meaning Of Keeper

Part of the purpose of Keeper is to imbue the film with an overarching sense of dread and terror of the unknown. Much of the movie is fueled by a horrifying sense of atmosphere, hinting at the monsters and their bizarre designs. However, they end up not being the real threat. Instead, it’s the genial man who is the danger.

Without the men making their sacrifices, the creatures might have never gotten such a high kill count or even become as monstrous as they are. It’s possible that their corrupted births were even the result of Malcolm and Darren’s murder of their mother, damning them all to a darker fate than if Malcolm had simply shown mercy.

This is reflected in the film’s final scene, where Malcolm yells at Liz because she is in his house and on his land. It’s a patriarchal view of the world, believing he’s entitled to his ancestors’ property, and reflective of his use of women to maintain immortality. In the end, Malcolm’s just a petulant child and is treated like one.

The monsters of Keeper only want to protect Liz, because they see her as their mother. By contrast, Liz believed Malcolm to be a good man, only to be horrifically corrected of that presumption. In Keeper, the true monsters aren’t the inhuman creatures but the men who enable suffering and doom women for their own personal gain.