Keeper 2024

On their one-year anniversary, Malcolm, a doctor, takes his girlfriend Liz, a painter, to a secluded cabin for a quiet weekend away. From the moment they arrive, the atmosphere feels off: a boxed cake left in the cabin is presented as a gift by the caretaker, though its purpose remains unclear. Dinner is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Malcolm’s loud cousin, Darren, and Darren’s European model girlfriend, Minka, who claims she doesn’t speak any English. As Malcolm scolds Darren, Minka bluntly tells Liz in English that the cake tastes awful, a remark Liz can’t shake off. Despite the warning, Liz reluctantly eats a slice at Malcolm’s insistence, and a strange unease settles over the couple.

That unease soon deepens into terrifying visions. Liz begins to see screaming, bloodied women and a pregnant woman who bears a striking resemblance to her. At night, she is inexplicably drawn to the cake again and consumes it in a single, ravenous bite, even after discovering severed fingers embedded inside. The following morning, Minka is attacked while wandering in the woods, an eerie sign of the danger closing in.

Malcolm claims he must return to the city to tend to a patient, promising to return by evening. Left alone, Liz reaches out to her friend Maggie for help, but the call is erratic and the connection poor. The house becomes a stage for otherworldly phenomena: shadowy figures, a ghostly version of Minka, and a disturbing woman wearing a plastic bag over her head. Darren returns, forcing his way inside with a meat cleaver, and Liz hides in the bathroom as he stalks about until unseen forces claim him. The more Liz tries to flee, the stronger the haunting becomes, and she pleads with Maggie to come collect her.

When Malcolm returns, Liz asks to go home, but he manages to calm her long enough to share a drink before they set out. Desperation and suspicion mount as Liz locks herself in the bathroom and discovers an old photograph showing Malcolm with a wife and daughters. Malcolm’s attempt to persuade her that the lock doesn’t work is nothing but a distraction from the truth. He finally reveals a chilling history: two centuries ago, as adolescents, he and Darren encountered a pregnant trespasser on their property. They shot her in the leg, locked her in a pigpen, and she gave birth to the creatures now haunting Liz. The men fatally shot the woman in the head and have spent generations luring women to the cabin to feed the creatures, who in turn grant the men a longer life. The screaming women in Liz’s visions are their past victims. The cake was drugged with the intent to knock Liz out.

Liz retaliates by locking the basement door and is surrounded by the beings, including the bag-headed woman who removes the bag to reveal a face with multiple eyes, noses, and mouths. Rather than attacking, the creatures seem to recognize Liz as their mother’s counterpart, the head of whom is kept preserved in a jar of honey. The moment is a mix of horror and dark awe as Liz experiences a strange, almost affectionate moment with the creatures before the reality sinks in.

Meanwhile, Malcolm’s fate twists as time accelerates his aging, and one of the creatures drags him into the struggle. By morning, an elderly Malcolm is found suspended upside-down from a tree. Liz, now with eyes as dark as the creatures’, approaches him and forcibly feeds him the drugged cake. He pleads for his life and insists his love is real, but Liz coldly rejects the plea, accuses him of deceit, and drowns him by dunking his head into a jar of honey before walking away.

The finale leaves Liz transformed and resolute, a stark fusion of fear and power, as she traverses the eerie property and steps into a new, unspoken future. The cabin remains a silent witness to centuries of a grim bargain, its walls echoing with the memories of the women who came before and the monstrous guardians who claimed their fate.