Tatiana Maslany anchors a terrifying final act as Perkins blends folklore, body horror, and generational curses to reveal the true nature of those cabin-dwelling creatures — and the shocking fate of Malcolm.
Osgood Perkins, one of the most distinctive horror stylists working today, has delivered two unnerving genre entries this year — the Stephen King adaptation The Monkey and the cabin-in-the-woods nightmare Keeper. While the two films differ wildly in tone and mythmaking, Keeper stands out as a folkloric descent into manipulation, immortality, and monstrous legacy. And its ending may be Perkins’ most shocking reveal yet.
But the final act blows the film wide open, revealing that Keeper isn’t just a haunting — it’s a centuries-spanning power struggle between humans and supernatural offspring.
Malcolm’s Secret: The Immortal Manipulator
Perkins reveals late in the film that Malcolm is no ordinary physician. Instead, he is an immortal predator who has spent 200 years luring unsuspecting women to the cabin to sacrifice them to a brood of forest-born monsters.
Through a flashback, we learn that Malcolm and his cousin once captured a pregnant woman trespassing on their land in the 1800s. She wasn’t human — or at least not entirely. Upon giving birth, she unleashed a litter of grotesque, otherworldly creatures. In exchange for women to feed on, the monsters granted Malcolm and his cousin eternal life.
Those horrifying spirits Liz has been seeing? They’re the remnants of past victims — women Malcolm brought to the cabin for slaughter, their tortured souls condemned to linger on the land.
The Twist: Liz Is the Mother Reborn
The film’s most arresting reveal arrives when Liz is imprisoned by Malcolm in the cabin's basement. Expecting to be devoured, she instead finds herself embraced by the creatures. Why? Because the ancient pregnant woman from 200 years ago looks exactly like Liz.
Liz is the reincarnation — or spiritual continuation — of the monsters’ mother.
The creature with the bloody bag over her head lifts the sack to reveal her distorted, multi-eyed face and calls Liz “Mother.” Suddenly, the grotesquerie becomes a family reunion rather than an execution.
Malcolm Pays the Price — and Liz Ascends
When Malcolm wakes the next morning, his stolen immortality collapses. He rapidly ages decades, his body collapsing under the weight of time he cheated.
Liz returns — transformed, empowered, and no longer human. With the help of her monstrous children, she captures Malcolm, hoists him upside-down, and plunges his head repeatedly into a pot of honey. The folklore imagery is unmistakable: a ritual sacrifice, a sweetened death delivered by the mother he deceived for centuries.
The final message of Keeper flips the traditional horror dynamic:
The monsters were never the villains — the humans were.
Perkins reframes monstrosity as a moral mirror:
- The ghouls are protectors, not predators.
- Malcolm is the true monster, feeding innocent women to maintain his immortality.
- Liz, through lineage and destiny, restores balance by reclaiming her ancestral power.
The cabin wasn’t haunted — it was a site of generational abuse, and Liz is the one who ends it.
In Keeper, the horror isn’t just the creatures lurking in the woods. It’s the human willingness to manipulate, exploit, and sacrifice others to survive.
Perkins’ ending lands with a wicked thud — a mix of folkloric myth, feminist revenge, and creature-feature catharsis.
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-- By Michael R. Thomas
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