[rating=8.00]
So many horror movies rely on so many cabins in the woods that it’s easy to let your mind shut down and your eyes glaze over when you start to see one moving in that direction. We know what we’re in for as soon as we see those forests and too often we mistake them for the trees. That’s a mistake I nearly made with What Keeps You Alive, a film that worked hard to win me over with its brutal psychological torment.
Writer/director Colin Minihan (It Stains the Sands Red) has crafted a taut and tense film that mixes elements of from across the horror spectrum to create a film that transcends itself to become a fine example of everything potentially great about modern horror. What Keeps You Alive is a film that makes you question what it is you think you know about the people closest to you while asking the simple question, how far would you go to save yourself?
Jackie and Jules (Hannah Emily Anderson and Brittany Allen, respectively) are a young married couple celebrating their first year anniversary in Jackie’s grandfather’s secluded lakeside cabin. What starts out as a romantic getaway quickly turns into a twisted game of survival, where horrifying truths are revealed and terrifying decisions must be made.
What Keeps You Alive is a psychologically harrowing, intense film that grabs on tight and never lets go. Alternately heartbreaking and terrifying, Minihan has emerged as a potential master of horror and suspense. Then tension builds to a relentless, gut wrenching level as more and more twisted secrets are revealed and the film rockets towards its conclusion.
While the script sometimes delivers some less than stellar dialogue, and some of the scenes play out a bit on the nose, What Keeps You Alive is still a bold take on the cabin in the woods trope that proves that old standards are capable of new life in the right hands. Minihan crafts several noteworthy scenes of psychological horror, including one set to “Moonlight Sonata” which sounds cliché but in Minihan’s hands becomes something bold and unique.
Without giving much away, both Anderson and Allen do a remarkable job carrying this entire film on their shoulders. Their cat and mouse game of jealousy, mistrust, and deceit is captivating to watch, and they handle the hard turns Minihan steers them towards with an impeccable aplomb.
This is psychological horror done right, and fans will revel in the darkly twisted tale What Keeps You Alive has to offer. Though it doesn’t offer anything overtly new, per se, its take on the trope is remarkable and the end result is a film that terrifies and delights, giving us a new answer to the old question, what secrets lurk in those woods?
