Keeper

Keeper marks Osgood Perkins' seventh directorial feature. Trivia: he is the son of actor Anthony Perkins. I hadn't heard of Osgood until all the hype about Longlegs, with Nic Cage, began to swirl about. I didn't love Longlegs as much as I was hoping to. It started great, but it never seemed to get going. Then came along The Monkey. I had a blast with this one. The Monkey was a fun horror film. Which brings us to his latest: Keeper. As I type this, the Rotten Tomatoes critic and audience scores sit at 51% and 40% respectively - a splat, as RT puts it. I had planned to see it in the theatre but didn't get around to it in time. A shame, I believe. I would have loved to see it on the big screen because it's a visual stunner. Like Tornado I just reviewed, the colour palette of this film is beige, brown, and grey. It feels like you walked into a GAP store in the mid '90s. Ha. Anyway, the story is a creepy cabin in the woods tale, except the cabin is an minimalist modern beautiful home, set in an idyllic forest with a tranquil stream running nearby. Oh, and there is another house nearby - crazy cousin Darren lives there. So, the plot is simple, Dr. Malcolm Westbridge (Rossif Sutherland) brings his new girlfriend Liz (Tatiana Maslany) up for a weekend at his "cottage." Malcolm's self-described asshole cousin lives next door. Things go strange quickly. Perkins knows how to make a haunting and disturbing atmosphere out of almost nothing. It's a formulaic story but the surreal and haunting images felt so fresh that my film-nerd squirrel tail went straight up with excitement. And Tatiana Maslany's performance, going loopy, is a fun trip. Keeper is a keeper. Catch it streaming or go rent it from Movies 'N Stuff here in Ottawa.