FrightFest review – The Caretaker (2025)
Eddie (Ben Probert), who suffers from trauma-induced muteness, is left homeless after the death of his abusive mother (Elizabeth May) … which means he has no choice but to take a job as caretaker at the exclusive Lockbridge Academy, replacing a previous employee who came to a bad end in a prologue. The school is run by the Abderdeen family – Charles II (PG Pearson) is the patrirachal Head while his son Charles III (Scott Hume) seethingly waits for him to retire and daffy daughter Lisa (Lauren Shotton) vaguely teaches art – but the only non-crazed, non-family character in residence is cleaner Marie (Mackenzie Larsen), who has bad history with the family and is working hard to get into a law course and away from the school.
It’s summer, so there are no pupils about – though Eddie gets glimpses of a girl (Livvy Dawson) who looks a lot like a pupil who’s familiar from missing person posters – and this small group of people can concentrate on their tangle of uncomfortable relationships. Eddie isn’t exactly in a good place when he comes to the school – his own horrid backstory gets teased out while he is drawn into the Aberdeens’ problems – and the air of absurd threat and barely-repressed mania doesn’t help. Eventually, the Aberdeens are revealed to have a literally incestuous set of family secrets – as if Chinatown were crossed with St Trinian’s – while Eddie is bothered by ghosts who might be literal or projections of his own guilt.
Writer-director Luke Tedder (Precognition) possibly protracts his stark, simple tale a little too long … just when you think it’s all over and everything’s tied up, there’s another fifteen minutes of story to be dealt with. Probert is good as the non-speaking protagonist, who shows his intelligence only in his preparation of superb sandwiches and in the depths of the notebook he mostly uses to write simple statements or questions while Hume and Shotton in particular relish the opportunity to play loathsome posh nutcases to the max. It makes very good use of its (borrowed?) location – the academy is the size of a small village and requires golf-cart-type vehicles to get across – though I’d suspect it has to hold back on some of the extreme action for fear of damaging the place.
Here’s the FrightFest listing.
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