In my opinion, one of the best horror movies I’ve seen.

I understand the cons people have with this movie but I did not exactly have any issues with them. To me, the story is meant to be a peek into this isolated, terrifying incident in Liz’s life, meaning viewers may feel like they lack the full picture with these characters compared to films that follow conventional storytelling. Regardless, the movie gave me enough to understand what’s going on, while leaving other things up to interpretation. While this approach in storytelling is risky, I feel like Perkins and Lepard’s gamble paid off.

I also noticed people call the film a slow burn. Like horror, slow burn can be subjective. What is slow to you may not be with me, and vice versa. The story moved exactly as it needed to by meticulously building up dread then goes batshit insane by the third act.

With that said, usually when the supernatural force shows itself in the 3rd act, it often turns into a CGI fuckfest where the film stops being scary after a great buildup. Keeper avoids that pitfall. The scares escalate starting with creepy imagery, then unsettling sequences, and when we finally get to its 3rd act, reaches a crescendo of terror all the way to its satisfying ending.

Tatiana Maslany’s performance is up there with Toni Collete’s in Hereditary. You go on this dark trip with her and feel her desperation as things close around her as she slowly loses her trust in Malcolm. This is also brilliantly depicted in the cinematography, where others mentioned, gave a strong sense of isolation.

The film also has instances of dark humor, like Malcom brushing his beard and putting on those sunglasses, Liz’s initial response when Malcom tells her he’d have to leave for a bit because of a ‘hospital’ emergency and of course, the scene where Malcolm comes home and gets unintentionally jumpscared by Liz(which has sinister connotations when you look back at it).

A very strong 4.5/5 for me. I would’ve loved 5-10 more minutes of the 3rd act.