The Caretaker (2025) Bittersweet, Awkward, and Quietly Unsettling

Context can be a curious thing because the circumstances in which you watch a movie can have a huge impact on how you feel about it, a case in point being Luke Tedder’s The Caretaker – now arriving on digital platforms in the USA and UK after debuting at last year’s London FrightFest. Within a film festival environment it could feasibly sit awkwardly amongst far more traditional horror and genre fare, but away from all that it can be approached with a clearer head. That distance is important because going in expecting a conventional horror movie may lead to disappointment, Tedder’s film leaning much closer to grounded dramatic storytelling than the heightened excess usually associated with horror – although it does still dabble in the darker and more disquieting.

The story opens with mute and withdrawn Eddie (Ben Probert), making sandwiches for his elderly, terminally ill mother – an upsetting interaction given how, despite him being her principal carer in her final days, she viciously she tears into him. The scene acts as part of a quiet coda to explain why Eddie chooses not to speak, and instead relies on basic British Sign Language, handwritten notes, and key cards with simple phrases. After a small jump forward in time Eddie’s mother has passed on, and despite having almost no qualifications or experience, he needs a job. Fortunately, his work coach has connections with the local private school, who are looking for a new caretaker (an enigmatic cold open shows exactly what happened to the previous one). Once hired, the Aberdeen family who oversee the institution leave Eddie in charge of maintaining the vast campus during the off‑season, and he must navigate both their familial dramas and his growing relationship with fellow employee Marie (Mackenzie Larsen). There are flickers of something supernatural and hints of a deeper mystery when Eddie’s alone in the eerie liminality of a school without students, but the lion’s share of The Caretaker’s focus lies in the interpersonal tensions of the Aberdeen family and their intergenerational conflicts.

Eddie’s tale unfolds within the familiar mantra of low‑scale independent filmmaking – write around what you have access to, and although I don’t know what Probert, Tedder, or producers Andy Luther and Ajay Nehra had at their disposal, the sheer scale of the location elevates The Caretaker far above most British indie genre pieces. The buggy used to drive around campus, the surrounding woodland, and the endless halls of the school give the film a lavish, almost gothic texture that’s closer to a Corman/Price romance filtered through a distinctly British lens. The campus, equal parts ancient and modern, makes for an impressive backdrop to a story about a self‑destructive elite and a man rendered mute by trauma, and the cinematography takes great glee in casting the tiny figures of its cast against the vastness of the school.

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As striking as the canvas is, the narrative painted across it has its issues – one half following Eddie rebuilding himself after hitting rock bottom. He’s a pragmatic protagonist weighed down by the neuroses of a troubled childhood, glimpsed in a series of expressive flashbacks that give his silence emotional shape, and the small moments of growth he experiences are beautifully communicated by Probert, expressing so much through body language and facial detail. The other half tracks the lengths to which the Aberdeen family will go to protect what’s theirs, and while the contrast between the two threads is valid (self flagellation and personal recovery versus inherited rot), the family drama underpinned by past horrors isn’t depicted with the same nuance. Although seeded throughout the film, the eventual twist from the Aberdeen’s lands abruptly – especially when Eddie’s slow, steady development is compared with the deeply unpleasant Charles Aberdeen (Scott Hulme). His scenes are merely one episode of privilege and bullying after another, the resulting histrionics feeling inevitable in terms of plot direction, but less confident on a character level, leaving the whole structure feeling top‑heavy.

It’s a confident production from Luke Tedder, pairing impressive scale and ambition with a character study cut from the same cloth as Lucky McKee’s May – bittersweet, awkward, and quietly unsettling. The Caretaker doesn’t always balance its narrative halves, and the final stylistic flourish feels more symbolic than earned – sitting a little at odds with the grounded emotional work the film has invested in Eddie. Its light brush with the supernatural is atmospheric enough, but similarly underplayed, and ultimately more of a thematic nudge than something the story genuinely needs, giving shape to old scars rather than deepening the mystery. Even with those wobbles, the film’s sense of place, its gothic streak, and Probert’s quietly affecting performance give it a distinct identity within the British indie genre space. It’s the sort of film that lingers more in mood than mechanics, and one that suggests Tedder is a filmmaker worth keeping an eye on.

ROB’S ARCHIVE – THE CARETAKER (2025)