One of the most criminally underrated aspects of Osgood Perkins’ latest offering, Keeper, is its opening needle drop. We are treated to a montage of women in the throes of modern dating hell, happy, then deer-in-headlights terrified, then distraught, followed by a smash cut to screaming faces covered in blood. It resonates. Why? Because I’m at a crossroads right now, not knowing what I want, and let’s be honest, nobody else seems to know either. You think everyone wants love, but usually, they just want a housekeeper or a therapist. Or, in the case of this film, a sacrifice.
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The forest is dark and full of spoilers. I’m about to dissect the ending and the contents of that cake. If you want to go into the woods blind, turn back now.
Keeper (2025) Review: A Folk Horror Fable Smothered in Cake
Keeper takes us on a trip with Liz (Tatiana Maslany) and her boyfriend Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland). All the red flags are there. He’s taking her to a remote cabin in the woods, and he’s bought her a beige sweater, which, frankly, is a crime against fashion and autonomy. They’ve been together a year, yet they haven’t asked a single serious question about their futures. It feels less like a relationship and more like a hostage situation with better lighting.
Oddly, the first thing to give Liz the “heebie-jeebies” isn’t the emotional distance, but a box with a tied rope on it. Her boyfriend, Malcom, tells her it’s a carrot cake left by a “caretaker,” which he claims is payment for using his family’s property. It’s a fancy place, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, no locks, essentially a fishbowl for whatever is watching from the trees.
The Descent into Weird Witchcraft
The film shifts gears when Malcolm’s cousin, Darren (Birkett Turton), arrives late at night with his date, Minka (Eden Weiss). There’s an immediate, weird “cahoots” vibe between the cousins. Darren calls Liz a “keeper,” but the way he says it sounds less like a compliment and more like he’s inspecting livestock.
Here is where Osgood Perkins does what he does best: making the mundane feel suffocating. Liz eats the cake. He says it’s chocolate, and she says she doesn’t even like that flavor. But in the middle of the night and after a few weird dreams, Liz wakes up. She wanders around, sees the cake, and just can’t help herself. Her midnight snack isn’t a wee nibble, but the whole thing. Maslany is fantastic here, playing the compulsion with a feral intensity, licking icing off her fingers while a montage of screaming women overlays the image. It’s gross, it’s mesmerizing, and it’s the first sign that Liz is tripping into a nightmare.
However, the narrative starts to tangle. Liz is clearly having some kind of reaction. She tells her sister she feels like she took mushrooms. We get flashbacks to Malcolm and Darren as teenagers (played by Glen Gordon and Logan Pierce), shooting a pregnant woman in the forest and locking her up with the pigs. We learn Malcolm is essentially ageless now, having made a pact with the forest spirits to feed them, women in exchange for… well, that’s where it gets murky. Eternal life? Wishes? The lore is so loose it feels like it might fall off the bone.
Visuals Over Logic
Cinematographer Jeremy Cox captures the isolation beautifully. The creatures, referred to in the credits as Baghead (Cassandra Ebner/Tess Degenstein), are distinct. They aren’t your typical jump-scare ghouls; they have a stretchy, skinless quality, oozing dribble with blacked-out eyes. They look less like spirits and more like something out of American Horror Story on a bad acid trip.
The problem lies in the logic. Malcolm claims he loves Liz, but he’s brought her here to die. He’s kept her for a year, labeled boxes in the basement show dates like “Liz: Nov 13, 2022 to Nov 12, 2023”, just to sacrifice her? That is a lot of investment for a murder. Why wait a year? Why the beige sweater? It’s a messy plot hole that no amount of atmospheric dread can fill. It feels like the script didn’t know if it wanted to be a breakup movie or a creature feature, so it just smashed them together.
Filmmaker Stamp: Osgood Perkins
Osgood Perkins (Longlegs, The Blackcoat’s Daughter) is the king of “The Perkins Pause.” He loves to let the camera linger in the dark corners of a room until you’re convinced something is moving. In Keeper, he utilizes the glass house to strip away safety. There are no walls to hide behind. His stamp is all over the sound design, a constant, low-frequency hum that creates anxiety. He rarely relies on cheap scares, preferring a slow, rot-like dread. However, unlike his previous tighter narratives, Keeper feels like it got lost in its own woods, prioritizing aesthetic over the “why.”
Ending Explained: The Queen Bee Theory
(Warning: Spoilers ahead) The ending left me, and likely many of you, scratching my head. Liz isn’t killed. The creatures surround her in the basement, but instead of tearing her apart, they seem to recognize her. Why? Because she looks identical to the “Mother” (Maggie) that Malcolm shot years ago.
My Theory: The pact was never about Malcolm. He was just the caretaker (the Keeper) until the true Mother returned. The creatures, her “children,” didn’t want another meal; they wanted their Queen back. They show her they need the head of the new Queen, and so Liz gets to work getting them Malcolm. In the final moments, Liz feeds Malcolm the cake while he hangs upside down. She lowers his head into a jar, replacing the original Mother’s head. Liz takes over the cabin. She isn’t the victim; she’s the new matriarch. Malcolm was simply keeping the seat warm.
Verdict
Keeper (2025) is rated 3.5 Beige Sweaters of Manipulation out of 5
Mother of Movies did some research into the folklore and ending explanations and put it all in one place. See the Spoiler section below for that.
Folk Horror Visuals vs. Narrative Void
Keeper is a visual feast of dread that ultimately starves the brain. While Maslany is electric and the atmosphere suffocating, the confused lore prevents it from being an instant classic. It’s a vibe, but a messy one.
Where to Watch Keeper (Streaming Online)
Need a VPN? Mother of Movies recommends SurfShark
Similar Titles
Did you get weirded out by Keeper? Try these for more folk-horror and bad relationships:
- Midsommar: For bad boyfriends, flowers, and daylight horror.
- The Ritual: If you like creatures in the woods and people making bad decisions.
- Men: For abstract, metaphorical horror about toxic masculinity.
- The Night House: For grief, architecture that hates you, and invisible entities.
Liz
Spoiler Section
Keeper (2025) Ending Explained: The Dark Folklore Behind the Horror Film
What Happens at the End of Keeper?
The shocking finale of Osgood Perkins’ “Keeper” reveals that Malcolm, the seemingly charming cabin owner, is actually an immortal predator who has lived for over two centuries. His eternal life comes at a horrific price: he has been sacrificing women to supernatural creatures born from a pregnant witch he and his cousin murdered 200 years earlier. These mysterious beings grant Malcolm immortality in exchange for fresh victims, creating a cycle of violence that has persisted across generations.
The film’s climactic moments showcase a powerful reversal of fortune. Liz, the protagonist, undergoes a transformation that manifests through her eyes turning black, mirroring the appearance of the creatures’ witch mother. This change signals her connection to the ancient magic that has haunted Malcolm for centuries. In a haunting conclusion, Liz hangs Malcolm upside down from a tree and submerges his head in honey, delivering poetic justice that draws directly from ancient folklore traditions. When the creatures finally withdraw their supernatural gift, Malcolm experiences rapid aging as two centuries catch up with him instantly.
The Ancient Folklore and Mythology in Keeper Explained
“Keeper” weaves together multiple strands of folk horror tradition to create its unsettling narrative. The film draws heavily from English witch trial folklore, particularly the concept of witch familiars, supernatural creatures that served witches in exchange for blood or flesh. These imp-like beings, believed to be gifts from the devil, could grant favors but inevitably brought terrible consequences to those who dealt with them. The creatures in “Keeper” function as a modern interpretation of these familiar spirits, acting as both avengers and protectors.
The film’s most striking folklore reference appears in its honey-drenched ending, which connects to the legend of the mellified man. This ancient Arabian and Chinese tradition involved elderly volunteers consuming nothing but honey until death, after which their bodies would be preserved in honey-filled coffins for a century. The resulting substance was believed to possess powerful medicinal properties.
Malcolm’s fate deliberately echoes this practice, transforming him into a grotesque version of this legendary remedy. Additionally, “Keeper” offers a feminist reimagining of the Bluebeard fairy tale, where a woman discovers her partner’s murderous secrets. Unlike the traditional story where the woman needs rescue, Liz finds salvation through the very creatures that Malcolm exploited, flipping the patriarchal narrative on its head and creating a tale of female empowerment born from ancient supernatural justice.
Keeper
Director: Osgood Perkins
Date Created: 2025-11-01 19:02
3.5
