Warning: Spoilers ahead for KeeperOsgood Perkins has been one of the hottest names in horror cinema since his breakout smash hit Longlegs in 2024. The horror-thriller flirted with several different horror subgenres during the course of one of the most memorable spine-chillers of the last decade, anchored by scream queen Maika Monroe and a gloriously unhinged Nicolas Cage.
His new supernatural folk horror movie Keeper adopted one of the most successful elements of Longlegs‘ brilliant marketing plan by showing virtually nothing about the movie’s plot in the trailers. For most of the movie’s runtime, there was a dark mystery hanging over the entire story, brought to life by Osgood Perkins’ ominous atmosphere and unsettling slow-burn tension.
By the ending of Keeper, audiences have been baited into the mystery, which makes the jaw-dropping resolution hit that much harder. The Rotten Tomatoes scores prove it may not have worked for everyone, but the ending demonstrated the trait that sets Osgood Perkins apart from his contemporaries.
Osgood Perkins Is A Master Of Memorable Imagery
Longlegs was well-written and well-paced, but what truly set it apart was the unsettling imagery scattered across the entire narrative. From Cage’s disturbing visage and grisly suicide to the blood-spattered murder scenes and hidden devilry, Longlegs was a masterclass from Perkins on how to craft images and scenes that stick with the viewer long after they’ve left the theater.
Keeper won’t come anywhere close to the heights of Longlegs when it comes to box office haul or critical reviews, but its bonkers finale includes some moments that are on par with the creepiest screen grabs from Perkins’ breakout hit. In Keeper, the existential dread comes from the unsettling relationship between Liz and Malcolm, but the real terror comes from the creatures haunting Malcolm’s cabin.
Implied to be the 200-year-old offspring of a woman who was almost certainly a witch, a collection of unholy crawling nightmares inhabit the cabin and the woods surrounding it, and are fed by Malcolm in exchange for his apparent immortality. Each creature has its own unique features, each of which is more terrifying than the last.
The screaming-faced pale creature (above) is the first to appear clearly in Keeper, but Perkins’ magnum opus is the disturbing creature whose head features the faces of the other women that Malcolm has sacrificed to the monsters. It’s a stand-alone image in what many might consider one of Perkins’ weaker projects, but it’s still a demonstration of why expectations remain high for each of his movies.
