Prior to his satanic mystery becoming 2024’s horror sensation, director Ogood Perkins had created three films that existed in an indie niche, appreciated only by horror enthusiasts who actively sought out unconventional material. His finest work is his debut, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, a whimsical yet melancholic midwinter boarding school story, and although his Netflix-released I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House garnered some attention, his stark Brothers Grimm adaptation, Gretel & Hansel, failed to make an impact in 2020. These movies are deliberate and suffocating, teasing viewers with straightforward, enticing horror concepts that seem elongated and muted beneath the hushed, sinister atmosphere.
Perkins entered the mainstream with Longlegs and particularly , last year’s absurd horror farce. The Keeper, also released last year, was a neglected return to his more restrained style, and deserves reconsideration now that it has received a 4K .
How was Keeper received upon release?
Keeper was the third Perkins movie distributed by Neon following Longlegs and The Monkey (), but after the tepid, confused response to Perkins’ flamboyant Stephen King adaptation, nobody at Neon quite knew how to handle a straightforward, rural cabin Bluebeard variation like Keeper – particularly since it aligns much more closely with the restrained, suffocated tone of his early films. It distills everything we understand about “elevated horror” to its fundamental principles, and its stark, unadorned implementation might represent the definitive statement on the trend.
It would be more accurate to say that Keeper wasn’t actually received when it premiered in November. , and . In theory, a stylized indie horror that modernizes the misogynistic captivity themes of Bluebeard, particularly with a strong lead performance from an underutilized actress (Orphan Black and She-Hulk‘s Tatiana Maslany), is the perfect film for indie distributor Neon to cleverly promote. But after The Monkey underperformed compared to Longlegs, they likely recoiled at how minimalist Keeper felt and concluded it could simply be discarded.
Why is Keeper important to see now?
The last ten years have witnessed a rise in independent genre movies influenced by more deliberate, international filmmaking. These combine a naturalistic, dread-and-anxiety-producing approach with explicit psychological and interpersonal themes, and coincided perfectly with the emergence of boutique, internet-popular distribution companies like A24, transforming “elevated horror” into more of a marketing strategy than an artistic movement.
With mixed success, stark and harsh horror movies like The Witch, Midsommar, Men, Relic, Saint Maud, The Vigil, and Censor seek out intrusive, twisted frights grounded in character or social contexts; their quest for dread and anxiety is filled with historical detail and realistic cinematography. Perkins’ initial three movies clearly fit this trend, but by 2025, audiences had grown weary of the subgenre’s subdued, grating, everyday impulses — with nasty indie exceptions like Bring Her Back notwithstanding, the most acclaimed horror films were also the most mainstream, with Sinners, Weapons, Final Destination: Bloodlines, and 28 Years Later all combining blockbuster spectacle with distinctive style.
Keeper so thoroughly embodies the minimalist, introspective, and subversive principles of the “elevated horror” genre that it was simple to ignore. Liz (Maslany) is taking her first journey with her new boyfriend Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland), but as she acclimates to his strangely secluded forest cabin, she’s oblivious to what viewers witnessed in the opening scenes – a sequence of various women with their partners, all filmed from the male perspective, which progressively grows more constricting, invasive, and frantic before ending in vicious screams. Even though it diminishes Keeper‘s enigma, this sequence possesses a blunt frankness. We understand our purpose, and the terror is clear, gender-specific, and unavoidable.
Liz is contentedly isolated, yet restless; her boyfriend appears distant, and his cousin Darren (Birkett Turton) annoys her with vulgar, leering behavior. The film features minimal characters and even sparser narrative, yet it includes flashy, dissolve-laden dream scenes and eerie elements hidden at the edges of otherwise ordinary forest shots. Keeper‘s unwillingness to overcomplicate itself becomes its primary appeal: Malcolm is essentially a collection of warning signs, Liz’s revelation that the home hides a sinister secret occurs without fanfare, and the verification of deep-seated misogyny committed by the movie’s Bluebeard figure is more dismissive than surprising.
Yet so restrained and simmering is Keeper‘s atmosphere that the predictability of its story developments feels oddly soothing. Whether consciously or not, Perkins’ commitment to the most straightforward rendition of this indie horror template has rendered it impossible for any subsequent filmmaker to revisit the same “elevated” source, since all the conventions and highlights are consolidated in a single work. Keeper is ideally viewed in its Blu-ray format, as a subdued and intimate ghost story perfect for a stormy night at home (and it could be matched with another overlooked creepy home-based horror from last year, The Woman in the Yard).
What new features does Keeper Blu-ray have?
As has often become typical with 4K Blu-rays of recent releases, Keeper contains disappointingly sparse bonus content, with the sole significant addition being a commentary track from Perkins himself. Perkins is an engaging and perceptive speaker, and his eagerness to speak openly about his passion for horror distinguishes him from younger filmmakers who tend to be more protective of their creative methods. Following Keeper‘s peculiar pacing, revisiting the film with Perkins’ reflections in your ears for 90 minutes is a delight.