For their first anniversary, Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland) takes his girlfriend Liz (Tatiana Maslany) out to a secluded cabin in the countryside for what is supposed to be a romantic weekend. Upon arrival, Liz finds a boxed cake waiting for her, which Malcolm insists is a thoughtful gift from the caretaker. The quiet isolation is soon punctured by the arrival of Malcolm’s obnoxious cousin Darren (Birkett Turton) and his high-fashion European model girlfriend, Minka (Eden Weiss ). Ignoring a very valid warning from Minka that the dessert tastes utterly repulsive, Liz is pressured by Malcolm into eating a slice.
That single bite pulls the thread on a full-blown folk horror nightmare. Liz begins suffering harrowing visions of screaming, bloodied women and a pregnant stranger who looks identical to her. As night falls, a hypnotic compulsion drags her back to the kitchen, where she devours the rest of the cake, only to discover severed human fingers baked inside.
Minka is violently attacked by an unseen force in the woods and Malcolm abruptly leaves under the guise of visiting a patient, Liz finds herself completely stranded. Creepy, misshapen creatures begin manifesting in the cabin, shadowing her every move alongside the ghostly apparition of Minka and a terrifying figure wearing a plastic bag over its head. When Darren returns wielding a meat cleaver, he is swiftly slaughtered by the unseen entities. A frantic Liz tries to call her friend Maggie for extraction, but cell service is dead. Upon his return, a suspicious Liz digs around and uncovers an old photograph of Malcolm with a wife and children. The confrontation reveals a centuries-old cosmic horror: 200 years ago, as teenagers, Malcolm and Darren shot a pregnant woman on the property, forced her to give birth to the creatures now haunting the house and executed her. To maintain eternal youth and an extended lifespan, the cousins have spent two centuries feeding victims to the monstrosities.
Drugged by the cake and locked in the basement by Malcolm, Liz faces the ultimate cosmic reversal. Surrounded by restless spirits—including the multi-eyed, multi-nosed entity beneath the bag—the creatures embrace Liz because of her striking resemblance to their murdered mother, whose head is preserved in a jar of honey. While a hysterical, laughing-and-screaming Liz accepts her new lineage, Malcolm ages rapidly into a frail, ancient wreck outside. The following morning, the tables have turned: an elderly, weeping Malcolm is strung up by his heels, forced-fed his own drugged cake and drowned head-first into a jar of honey by a cold, black-eyed Liz.
Keeper was directed by Osgood “Oz” Perkins, who has quickly cemented himself as a new voice in horror with his movies The Blackcoat’s Daughter, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, The Monkey, Gretel & Hansel and the sensation Longlegs. I like that he’s been putting out a movie a year, but I haven’t been convinced by him yet. Here’s hoping he does that next time.
You can get this from Deep Discount.
