By MICHAEL GINGOLD
KEEPER may be hitting theaters (this Friday from Neon) nearly a year after director Osgood Perkins’ THE MONKEY, but Tatiana Maslany, who stars in both, reveals that KEEPER was actually filmed first. “We shot this one very cheap and cheerfully, before THE MONKEY, and it was the first time I met Oz,” she recalls during a press event last month. “We talked about KEEPER, and the way he spoke about it was so weird and abstract, and that’s why I was like, ‘Oh yeah, let’s do that.’ It felt like something we were going to really build in the moment. Obviously, there was a script and everything, but he was so open to what was happening in our world in terms of the set and what we had available.”
That screenplay is only the second one (after 2020’s GRETEL & HANSEL) that Perkins has directed but didn’t write himself. Scripted by Nick Lepard (DANGEROUS ANIMALS), KEEPER is coming to theaters under a cloak of secrecy regarding its story details, though the trailers (see the latest one below) promise plenty of freaky sights in the Perkins tradition. What can be said is that Maslany and Rossif Sutherland star as Liz and Malcolm, a couple who travel to a vacation house in the woods for a weekend getaway. Tension arises during a brief visit by another couple, Darren (Birkett Turton) and Minka (Eden Weiss), and there are strong hints that horrible things have happened to other women at this cabin. When Malcolm, a doctor, is called home to deal with an emergency, Liz is left alone to confront a lurking legacy of evil.
Maslany recalls that she and Perkins were on the same wavelength right from their first Zoom meeting. “We really jammed on the same kinds of films and the same sort of interests. We both really like Shelley Duvall and Gena Rowlands. He enjoys that kind of oddness of those performers, and imbues his sets with the freedom to go there as well. Even if you’re playing the lead, the person that we’re following, he encourages you to find those other things that will make a scene feel unexpected and surprising. He’s really good at holding the tone intact, but he’s also like, ‘Let’s go way off this way, and then go way off that way, and see what those instincts are.’
“The thing I love so much about KEEPER in the sequence of LONGLEGS, THE MONKEY and now this,” she continues, “is that it’s very different. Oz has such amazing cinematic knowledge, but also a curiosity about changing things up and not doing the same thing he’s done before. A lot of his previous films, too, are very different in terms of size, in terms of the folk-tale elements or the mythical thing or whatever. He really dips into different pots–and, obviously, comedy in different ways. THE MONKEY is, like, goofballs, and LONGLEGS I thought was hilarious [laughs]. KEEPER also has humor in it, but in a very different way.”
When the going gets seriously scary, expect plenty of bizarre and grisly makeup effects by Amazing Ape Productions and Werner Pretorius, encoring from LONGLEGS and THE MONKEY. Working on set with these kinds of creations delights Maslany, who cites one particularly surreal prosthetics showcase as an early favorite. “My gateway drug was the movie SOCIETY,” she reveals, saying that while watching the Brian Yuzna film, “I can feel the guy off camera pressing a bladder that’s making blood come out of this person. And also, their face is a butt. There’s something so immediate about it. And a lot of KEEPER, we did with practical effects. There’s obviously other [digital] stuff, but the practical side of it made me so thrilled. It really puts you in that kid place of, like, the scary stuff we’re making is real, you know? It really is like a playground. It’s so much fun.”
She adds that part of Perkins’ success lies in surrounding himself with like-minded collaborators and carrying them over from project to project. “He collects people who are up for it, who are willing to play. And that’s across the board: the actors, but also all of the designers in terms of hair, makeup, wardrobe, set design. The specificity that these people bring to the job is that childlike thing. It’s like, ‘Here’s a bag of teeth. You didn’t ask for them, but here they are,’ you know? And he either says, ‘Awesome, I love that,’ or, ‘That doesn’t work, but you’re amazing.’ There’s a lot of encouraging of people’s weirder impulses and trusting them, and trusting that the people he has collected are good at what they do. So you just want to make him happy.”
On a more personal note, Maslany acknowledges that the filmmaker’s own background finds its way into his movies as well. “I feel like Oz is very open about all of his family stuff. It’s all in his films. His dad, I’m sure we all know, is Anthony Perkins, and his mom, Berry Berenson, died in one of the planes on 9/11. Whether it’s the tragedies or the beautiful complexities of his parents and their relationship, he imbues his films with that, in the subject matter. He’s not afraid of it; you can see that in his movies, looking at death in a very specific way. It’s really intense, but he does it with a sense of humor and a kind of wit, and lets death be something else, in a sense. That’s a big part of the legacy.”
Maslany has her own legacy in the fright genre; though she’s likely best-known for fantastical series such as ORPHAN BLACK and SHE-HULK: ATTORNEY AT LAW, she first made an impression in a cult-favorite sequel shot in her native Canada. “I think I was initially cast in horror because they were like, ‘You’re older, but you look young, which is scary.’ [Laughs] ‘You’re smart, but you look like you’re, like, 6.’ When I did GINGER SNAPS: UNLEASHED, I was around 17 playing 11 or something like that. But that was my first chance at playing a character with mannerisms that we built, and vocal aspects and all of that. It was my first chance to play with rhythms in acting. And I did DIARY OF THE DEAD with George Romero, which was unbelievable–just to be on set with him. He was an amazing, gentle man who loved a good zombie. And had a cat that looked like a zombie–absolutely half dead [laughs].”
And now she has worked twice with one of the top talents in the current horror field, energized by the process of creating scary entertainment with limited means. “What KEEPER reignited in me–which I am always ready to have reignited–is, you can make cool stuff with nothing, you know? And when people really want to do it, you can do things quickly, you can do things cheaply. You can do things with very talented people who aren’t famous, who don’t have a name that’s going to be the thing that sells it. That can be done, and it really reinvigorated my sense of that and my hope for film.”
Shortly after this event took place, it was announced that Maslany is teaming with Perkins a third time, as part of the ensemble of THE YOUNG PEOPLE. Currently shooting in Vancouver for Neon, which will release it next year, the movie (whose plot is also being kept secret) co-stars Lola Tung, Nico Parker, Nicole Kidman, Brendan Hines, Cush Jumbo, Heather Graham (SUITABLE FLESH), Johnny Knoxville, Lexi Minetree and Lily Collias. “He’s nonstop,” Maslany says of Perkins. “And you love to see that, but you also want him to take one nap [laughs]!”
