L'élue

I will admit, the cinematography is good! But it's pretty framing on a kindergarten level painting. The story is jumbled and feels slightly rushed yet somehow you'll feel every minute going by at the pace of a snail, it feels like he's trying to explain that men will sacrifice anything to reach a goal but it tells it in such a way that feels as if he let an edgy 2015 era Tumblr-ite write the script. I spent a concerning amount of time thinking about other movies I could have seen instead of it while it was playing, not worth the time or energy it took and it ruined my evening. Kinda like "this could've been an email" but in movie form...

Keeper (2025) is a psychological horror movie directed by Osgood Perkins and it follows a couple on a romantic anniversary trip to a secluded cabin that turns sinister when a dark presence reveals itself, forcing them to confront the property's haunting past. I just got done watching the movie and it was okay.

Positives for Keeper (2025): The story is somewhat interesting for what it's going for. I also have to give credit to Osgood Perkins for doing his best with what he has to work with. Tatiana Maslany and Rossif Sutherland are good in their roles. The movie is short and it gets to the point. And finally, the ending was interesting for being different enough.

Negatives for Keeper (2025): This movie has a story that you've seen so many times. It is so predictable with what is going to happen. I was getting bored with the movie because I saw a lot of things coming. And finally, the ending was bizarre despite being interesting.

Overall, Keeper (2025) is one of the weaker movies from Osgood Perkins that I've seen so many times, but I will continue to watch his movies in the future.

Osgood Perkins third film in 18 months is another horror story, though tonally different from both "Longlegs" and "The Monkey". This is , I suspect, the most divisive of the three films and I'm not sure really benefitted from the improvements made possible by Neon's cash injection.

Liz (Tatiana Maslany) comes to the secluded woodland house belonging to her boyfriend Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland). The only nearby house belongs to Malcolm's cousin Darren (Birkett Turton) though he is supposed to be away. Liz begins to see and feel presences in the house and surround area that she can't explain. Her distrust of Malcolm grows, though he too is seeing his previously sensible and capable girlfriend seemingly losing her mind.

I listened to a podcast with Osgood Perkins before seeing the film, so I am aware that the film was shot before "The Monkey" in Canada, as a way to keep working around the 2023 labour strikes. I also knew that it was shot in a 'pickup' style with them attempting to hammer out exactly what the story was in post-production and also that Neon gave him a small amount of money to enhance the visual effects ahead of release. I don't think that those CGI elements were to the films benefit, the practical effects are much scarier than those elements, particularly as they are exposed for quite long period in the last act.

I was maybe a bit more prepared though for the "dark trip" style of the film, as opposed to some of the rest of the audience in the screening I was in, who seemed more negative about the film at its conclusion than I felt. I thought that Maslany was, as she always is, brilliant.

It couldn't live up to an exceptional trailer and the 'cleanliness' of the CGI elements, as opposed to the physical effects really worked against the film, but overall, I still feel positively about it.

This was his worst movie...not onIy is it bIand and boring, nothing really happens...there was almost zero mystery. Just a cheap story thrown into odd scenes with shadows...this is the same story we have seen over and over, most recently we saw it in WEAPONS...I was expecting it to be nuts like Together or The monkey...instead we just get 1 shocking scene that was SH0WN lN ALL THE PR0M0S...RUlNED.... I reaIIy had high hopes we would get something unique...but nope...we get some cooI cinematography, some good production vaIue...and that's lT...you might as weII check out Shelby Oaks lf you haven't...That M0VlE was 100x better and scarier...

I think the problem I'm having when it comes to the filmography of Oz Perkins is that the first film of his I saw was 'Longlegs (2024)', which basically set my expectations too high for his upcoming work. I don't think I'm diminishing the genuine success of that enigmatic movie when I say that maybe Perkins isn't quite the filmmaker you'd think he is if you've only seen that picture. Striking gold by random doesn't mean you haven't struck gold, but it does mean you'll probably have a harder time doing it again... at least on purpose. The director's latest, 'Keeper (2025)', is a very different flavour to his other effort from this year, 'The Monkey (2025)', but is probably just about as enjoyable for different reasons. It's much more serious and sinister, essentially a surreal haunted house story with some bemusing absurdism but generally no sense of humour. Even at only around a hundred minutes, it still feels a bit too long because it basically boils down to a relatively slow buildup of strange occurrences that culminate in a finale focused almost entirely around an exposition dump that explains too much (or, at least, too obviously) and not enough all at once. Despite this, the creepy imagery and committed central performance keep you invested in the affair, and its willingness to be straight-up strange without winking at its audience is also fairly commendable. It's all a little bit random, and there's no real way the audience would be able to guess the specifics of what's going on, but its bizarreness is at the very least interesting even if it isn't in service of a greater theme or, even, particular concept. The writing is a little clumsy at times, and it falls into the same traps as many of its inspirations, but it's mysterious enough to keep you engaged for the majority of the runtime. The direction isn't anything special, but it's sturdy - and, even, confident - enough to provide more than a few enjoyable frights while remaining relatively restrained and keeping things feeling quite claustrophobic. The flick, in general, is very generic, yet relatively well-achieved. It doesn't really say anything, but it's just about stylish enough that its lack of substance isn't especially bothersome. It's a decent effort, even though it's ultimately fairly forgettable.