Does Tatiana Maslany Get the Last Laugh in Osgood Perkins' Mind-Bending Thriller?

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for ‘Keeper.’The horror hits keep on coming for Osgood Perkins. One year after the viral success of Longlegs and less than a year after the chaotic Stephen King adaptation The Monkey, he’s already back on the big screen with one of his wildest horror movies yet, Keeper. Similar to the viral marketing campaign that served Longlegs incredibly well, the vast majority of Keeper‘s plot and narrative has been shrouded in secrecy, with really the only thing audiences knew going into it being that it follows a young woman named Liz (Tatiana Maslany) as she and her boyfriend Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland) share a romantic getaway in a cabin in the woods. However, since this is an Osgood Perkins movie, the reality is anything but, and it makes for one of the horror filmmaker’s most shocking conclusions yet.

Malcolm Reveals the Truth to Liz in ‘Keeper’s Shocking Climax

For a bulk of Keeper‘s runtime, Liz is haunted by all manner of strange occurrences, such as an urge to eat a chocolate-flavored cake that she hates, drawing eerie drawings of screaming figures, and witnessing visions of mysterious women and odd creatures. Just like she did with The Monkey, Tatiana Maslany once again proves she is one of the most underrated performers in the entertainment industry right now, with the Orphan Black and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law star doing an incredibly convincing job of asking the audience whether what’s happening to her is real or just all inside her head. However, the film’s climax finally unveils what’s really going on in this cabin from hell.

In true mother! and Companion fashion, Malcolm is not the loving boyfriend that he appears to be, and not just because the cake she ate was drugged and was supposed to knock her out. He’s also not a doctor nor is he an unfaithful husband, as he’s actually a 200-year-old man who has been luring unsuspecting partners to his humble abode for decades. How is this possible? When Malcolm was a boy, he and his cousin (Birkett Turton) witnessed a pregnant woman trespassing on their property — a woman who happens to look exactly like Liz. Malcolm uses his musket to shoot the woman, and he throws her into the pig pen. That night, Malcolm and his cousin saw the woman had given birth, but this was no immaculate conception, as made clear by the smoking umbilical cord and blood-stained footprints on the wall. The barely conscious woman all but confirms she’s in tune with the supernatural with her pitch black eyes before young Malcolm puts her down with one final gunshot.

However, the witch’s offspring were very much still at large, but Malcolm and his cousin learned a solution. If they keep giving the witch’s monstrous offspring people to feed on, Malcolm and his cousin will get eternal life in exchange, hence why they’ve both been able to live as long as they have. The women who have been appearing in Liz’s visions are Malcolm’s past victims, and now, he hopes that her feeding these witchlings will satiate their hunger and give him another few years of immortality. It doesn’t take long for the creatures to stop scaring the crap out of Liz for them to finally reveal themselves to her.

Liz Laughs It Up With the Witchlings

With their secret now revealed, the witchlings eventually reveal themselves to Liz in the house’s basement. While Malcolm prefers to take care of his victims humanely (or as humanely as a ritualistic sacrifice can be), he thinks his work is done and has a drink while remembering his earlier screaming victims. However, while it should have been apparent from the start, Liz isn’t like the other women Malcolm has brought to the cabin before.

As Liz gets up close and personal with the monstrous beings (who are brought to life with some pretty cool designs and effects). It almost looks like the end for our protagonist, but the creatures actually seem to embrace Liz. Each of the creatures begins observing and admiring Liz’s face and features, with Liz both laughing and screaming at the same time as she is embraced by the curious supernatural creatures. Given that this is all taking place in front of an effigy of the witch that was killed all those years ago, the implication here appears to be that Liz is either a descendant or perhaps even the reincarnation of the woman Malcolm killed when he was young. It’s also probable that Liz underwent some sort of possession, with the witch’s soul entering her body as an ideal host.

Now that the witchlings are reunited with their “mother,” there’s just one more loose end to tie up — Malcolm. After abducting the villain and revealing they can take Malcolm’s gift of immortality away by turning him back into an old man, Liz says one final farewell to her now-ex-boyfriend before dunking his head in a thick substance not unlike that which was used to preserve the head of the witchlings’ mother. Liz’s conquering of her manipulative homicidal partner gives the woman a happy ending, but it does remain to be seen what’s to become of the witchlings now that their personal DoorDash driver has his head in a pot of embalming fluid, but perhaps Liz can start with Malcolm’s cousin to lure some unsuspecting men to her new home in the woods.

Keeper comes to theaters on November 14.