Spoilers for “Keeper” follow.
There’s been a veil of secrecy surrounding Osgood Perkins’ “Keeper,” and part of the reason for that has been Neon wanting to keep the film’s mystery intact for as many people as possible. Now, finally, the film is in theaters and we can all start talking about it. Fortunately, there’s a lot to talk about; as my review explains, the film is a veritable layer cake of horror concepts and subgenres. Not to mention that it’s a movie which features some standout performances from its two leads, Tatiana Maslany and Rossif Sutherland. There’s a lot to discover in “Keeper,” and its surrealist narrative raises questions that aren’t all completely answered by the film’s conclusion.
One element that’s so exciting is the film’s creature design. Though “Keeper” is not a monster movie in the same way that “Alien” or “A Quiet Place” is, it touches upon the creature feature in an impressive way, providing not just one but several types of creepy new beasties. These monsters aren’t arbitrary creepy crawlies, either, but have deep ties to the larger themes and narrative that “Keeper” is spinning. Like the film they belong to, they contain elements of influences from various sources. There’s a bit of Junji Ito in them, a bit of “Silent Hill,” some theatrical antecedents (like Kabuki makeup and Commedia dell’arte) as well as a reminiscence of the genre films of Ken Russell and Neil Jordan. All of this makes the “Keeper” creatures a true treat for horror fans, introducing some images that will be sure to linger in some of our nightmares to come.
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The monsters in Keeper are both nightmarishly surreal and narratively grounded
To be fair, the creatures of “Keeper,” while incredibly relevant to the plot, are seen for maybe 8 or so total minutes of a 99 minute movie. Perkins and his crew increase this unknown factor surrounding “The Children,” as they’re referred to, by making them aesthetically of a piece yet varied. While they all (save one) have Kabuki/dell’arte white masks for faces, they seem to have different attributes: one has smoke (or gas?) pouring from their orifices, another has a long, tentacle-like neck, and so on. The blend of practical makeup effects and CGI effects work in tandem to make The Children nightmarishly surreal, and their mix of tangible and intangible make them indelible.
There’s one who’s not like the others, however, and while this creature doesn’t have a name, it’s made abundantly clear who and what they are. As they say in the film, they’re all the women that Malcolm has fed to the Children over the centuries as payment for his continued prosperity and immortality. It turns out that these victims were not completely devoured as he assumed, and some version of their personalities survive in this amalgam creature, a thing with one body but numerous faces. She is the living revenant of Malcolm’s crimes, as well as the embodiment of female vengeance that helps choose Liz as their new mother.
While “Keeper” is a standalone movie, its creature design is so creepy and unique that the film won’t be easily forgotten. Who knows, perhaps Perkins could find another story for the Children to appear in, just as Parker Finn allowed Lollipop to return in “Smile 2.” When it comes to new movie monsters, “Keeper” ensures that we and the Children are eating very well.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
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