Episode 034: What Keeps You Alive
“Majestic mountains, a still lake and venomous betrayals engulf a female married couple attempting to celebrate their one-year anniversary.”
The film first premiered in March 2018 at the SXSW Film Festival and was written and directed by Colin Minihan.
This week we are going to be reviewing “What Keeps You Alive”, a 2018 horror film about a married couple celebrating their one year anniversary in a secluded lake-side home. Since it is October, it makes it the perfect time to review a horror film!
You can either listen to the podcast above, or you can read below for a majority of the transcript of the podcast! Now as always, our discussion will begin with a brief summary of the film followed by spoiler free thoughts and feelings. This will be followed by an in-depth discussion of some of the key plot points that occurred and we will then finish off with my overall rating of the film and a heads up about what we are looking at next time. If you have not had a chance to watch What Keeps You Alive and don’t want to hear any spoilers, then please feel free to skip the detailed section and listen to it afterwards if you so wish.
With such a tight focus on a few characters in the wilderness, the film does rely on the strong performances of the two lead actresses, Hannah Emily Anderson and Brittany Allen. And Brittany actually composed the film’s score as well, so she really is a powerhouse of an artist! I think the only issue with the casting that I would bring up is that as far as I have seen, neither of the leads identify as queer, and it would have been better to give this opportunity to a member of the community.
Final Feelings and Recommendation
If
Overall,
SPOILERS AHEAD
Now, just a reminder that at this point, I will be going into a more detailed analysis of the film which means there will be spoilers! If you haven’t managed to watch What Keeps You Alive yet and you don’t want anything spoiled, then this is your last chance to avoid the discussion. Or you can go ahead and close the page, go watch the film and then come back afterwards to finish reading. I promise we won’t mind. Still here? Well then, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Now