A lot could be made of how someone answers the question: Who is the hero of Keeping Company?

Is it the funny newlywed couple (John Milhiser and Bryan Safi) being hectored over life insurance? They’re interesting enough, and the audience definitely sympathizes with them. Or is it Sonny (Devin Das), the driven insurance salesman trying to impress his boss and father and trying to sell one more policy? Or maybe his partner Noah (Ahmed Bharoocha) the optimistic, gentle soul, an orphan soon to be a father?

Or maybe it’s Lucas (Jacob Grodnik), the guy that locked them in his basement after they pestered him too long to buy insurance. Just knocked them down and chained them up and returned to his immaculate house to face the scorn of his overbearing grandmother.

Or perhaps it’s even Grandma (Suzanne Savoy) herself? Or Paula Caste (Gillian Vigman), the owner of the insurance company? Or Sonny’s dad (Bernard White)? All have something in common, controlling the lives of the others. A case could be made for any of these.

I think a test based on this decision would predict your personality at least as well as which of BTS you are.

This movie, not to put too fine a point on it, is fun. It has murder, kidnapping and cannibalism but is really never gory. It is funny more than scary, but that doesn’t mean there’s any shortage of tension or any stakes for the characters.

The very first second of the film caught my attention, and it took some time to realize why: even in a slum alley, even in a kidnapper’s basement, even in a soulless insurance agency, the light is warm. I know that sounds unimportant, but especially in the days of Saw knockoffs with their blue-grey cinematography, this warmth really stands out, and makes it feel more real.

As the film progresses and tension rises, the camera work continues to serve the story well, intercutting from plot to plot with such precise timing I never feel cheated by a cliffhanger.

Writers Das and Wallace don’t have a lot of credits between them, but they have created a solid film with an excellent cast of people who all feel like someone you know. Not like a Hollywood actor — which adds to the “who’s the hero?” question. In many films, the whole cast is character actors, and then two Hollywood-pretties are the leads. Not here. Everyone’s on the same stage. And I find that refreshing.

And everybody has such nice shoes.

I would recommend Keeping Company to anyone who likes American Horror Story, 1BR or The ‘Burbs. A grim story warmly told.

 10 out of 10 Meat Cleavers.