When ‘Keeper’ and ‘Predator: Badlands’ Invite You Home, How Should You RSVP?

November 18, 2025

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Which one is the real Predator and the real Keeper? (CREDIT: NEON/Screenshot; 20th Century Studios/Screenshot)

Keeper

Starring: Tatiana Maslany, Rossif Sutherland

Director: Osgood Perkins

Running Time: 99 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: November 14, 2025 (Theaters)

Predator: Badlands

Starring: Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Elle Fanning, Reuben de Jong, Mike Homik, Cameron Brown

Director: Dan Trachtenberg

Running Time: 107 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: November 7, 2025 (Theaters)

Yes, the rumors are true, I have seen both Keeper and Predator: Badlands (in that order). Now it’s time to answer the question on the tips of everyone’s tongues: do I yearn to live in the worlds of these movies? Both are inhospitable in their own ways, but is there any upside?

In the former, Tatiana Maslany plays the object of Rossif Sutherland’s affection, but all the spooky goings-on at the cabin he takes her to makes her doubt that he’s truly affectionate. Meanwhile, the titular “Badlands” in the latter refers to the planet Genna, which is home to some majorly dangerous flora and fauna. Now even if I weren’t a Predator, I certainly wouldn’t want to jump into that unprepared, so maybe I could first dip my toes into it Avatar-style or via a simulator. I reckon I could make it work eventually, especially if I brought along some friends.

Back to the Keeper Cabin, the ghosts and specters are fun to experience from a distance, but if I were actually in their midst, I’m worried I’d be a little too unfamiliar to them and they just wouldn’t know what to do with me. So we’ll give P:B the edge in the Making a Home Department. But they’re both worthwhile movies in their own ways!

Grades:
Keeper: 5 Flashbacks out of 3 Stretchy Heads
Predator: Badlands: I Especially Liked It When Elle Fanning Wouldn’t Stop Yammering

Movie Review Catch-Up: ‘Fall,’ ‘Spin Me Round,’ ‘Orphan: First Kill’

August 31, 2022

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

What’s going to Fall? (CREDIT: Lionsgate)

Fall:

Starring: Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding, Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Director: Thomas Mann

Running Time: 107 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: August 12, 2022 (Theaters)

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‘Possessor’ Review: The Cronenbergian Energy is Strong with This One

September 29, 2020

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Possessor (CREDIT: Neon)

Starring: Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tuppence Middleton, Sean Bean, Rossif Sutherland

Director: Brandon Cronenberg

Running Time: 104 Minutes

Rating: Unrated (with R-Level Gore, Sex, and Disturbia)

Release Date: October 2, 2020 (Select Theaters and Drive-Ins)

Human beings are not meant to house two brains in one head. We’ve seen it attempted in various sci-fi movies, and it never works out peacefully. In Possessor, the result is about as rancorous as it’s ever been. Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) is a brilliant assassin, and like a lot of brilliant assassins, her days are numbered. In her case, that’s because she infiltrates other people’s bodies while committing the deeds and her latest host, corporate drone Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott), is violently resisting her presence. If you’re in the mood for some internal body horror, you’ve come to the right place.

Possessor was written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, son of body horror master David Cronenberg, and the maxim “like father, like son” certainly applies here. A sex scene is intercut with a stabbing, while a murder sequence features close-ups of an eyeball and teeth getting poked out with a fire poker. You can imagine that this is the kind of movie that the senior Cronenberg would have been making had he come of age during a more digitized era. Which is all to say, Brandon is proudly carrying on the family tradition. With Possessor, he paints us a picture of how violent and blood-splattered it can get when a host fights off a virus. It’s disturbing physically, psychologically, and ethically, but all presented so wonderfully baroquely that you can’t help but be entranced.

Possessor is most satisfying with its aesthetic accomplishments. Various sequences are presented in a monochromatic palette, and a varying monochrome at that. Some mustard yellow here, some blood red there, all contributing to a beautifully distorted sense of reality. One eternally unforgettable image is the mask of Tasya (as seen on the poster) that Colin is attempting to rid himself of, thus conveying a slippery lack of separation between the physical and the mental. The plot is a little harder to parse, but it has enough suspenseful intrigue to keep you engaged. There’s some dialogue that’s difficult to make out, especially from the mumble-prone Abbott, but I imagine that that may be intentional. Possessor feels like exactly the sort of movie that wants you to lean in for you to hear it only to then throw the next highly shocking image right in your face. To which I say, keep leaning in.

Possessor is Recommended If You Like: Devs, Videodrome, The bathhouse fight in Eastern Promises

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Assassinations