5 days ago
In 'Keeper,' Osgood Perkins mines the 'discomfort' of relationship horror
SAN DIEGO – Osgood Perkins is embracing the horror of romance.
The director of 'Longlegs' and 'The Monkey' is back again with another scary movie, 'Keeper,' a cabin-in-the-woods thriller he previewed at the pop-culture festival Comic-Con. The presentation was part of Neon's "Next Wave of Horror" panel on Friday, July 25, an event that also featured 'Together' stars Alison Brie and Dave Franco and 'Shelby Oaks' filmmaker Chris Stuckmann.
'Keeper' (in theaters Nov. 14) centers on a couple, Liz (Tatiana Maslany) and Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland), who go to his secluded cabin for their anniversary and end up being haunted by the place's freaky past. 'Things get real, real, real weird,' Perkins said. He debuted a new trailer that showed strangeness from both lovers' perspectives.
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With relationship horror, 'a lot of the fear and the discomfort comes from 'Where am I, am I safe here, do I know this person I'm in love with?' ' Maslany said. Plus, 'we did some fun classic running and screaming.'
Perkins revealed that 'Keeper' is about how he's been a jerk in his own relationships. 'Honestly, ladies and guys, we mean to do well, but sometimes we just suck,' he said. 'And I've sucked with the best of them.'
He gave a shoutout to 'Together' (in theaters July 30), which explores the codependence of a couple (Brie and Franco) in eerie ways. 'But where (their movie) is very physical in a beautiful way, ('Keeper') is more mental and emotional. I guess we're all trying to do the same thing, which is that relationships kill you.'
Stuckman, a YouTube film critic turned filmmaker, also premiered a trailer for his directorial debut 'Shelby Oaks' (Oct. 3). Camille Sullivan plays a woman seeking her missing sister in a narrative that involves a found-footage tape and a very bloody incident. Sullivan 'is one of those amazing people who's a secret weapon.'
Perkins began the panel by paying tribute to the marginalized voices of the LGBTQ community and his father, 'Psycho' icon Anthony Perkins. He was 'a queer man not allowed to be a queer man in society or his business,' Osgood Perkins said. 'His voice was not amplified.'
To honor his and the community's struggles, Perkins led the crowd as everyone did Bernard Herrman's infamous 'Psycho' knife sounds.
