Ghostkeeper is a 1981 Canadian supernatural slasher film directed by James Makichuk, and starring Riva Spier, Georgie Collins, and Murray Ord.

Its plot centers on a trio of snowmobilers in the Canadian Rockies who become stranded at an abandoned hotel where the elderly female innkeeper is hiding an evil entity within the building.

Jenny, Marty, and Chrissy are spending their New Year's Eve on a snowmobiling trip in the Rocky Mountains.

Looming before them is a seemingly abandoned hotel at the top of the snow trail, isolated from tourists and miles away from the skiing area.

Meanwhile, Danny carries Chrissy to the basement of the hotel, where he slits her throat and then stores her body in a freezer.

She awakens in the basement, where she finds a book on First Nations folklore and reads that a Wendigo is often "kept" by an old woman who had the power passed on to her from another.

She opens the freezer and discovers a human Windigo[broken anchor] inside, being the old woman's second son.

After three years of this, Makichuk would later admit that he had grown tired of the job and decided to make his next project a feature film.

The two quickly became good friends, deciding to collaborate on a feature-length project, wanting to capitalize on the growing popularity of the horror genre after the recent success with John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), that could be filmed at a single location with a small cast.

According to Makichuk, the Wendigo was originally intended to have a more substantial role in the film, but many scenes had to be removed due to budget restraints.

[10] The majority of the cast were locally-hired actors in the Calgary area,[3] with the exception being lead Riva Spier, who was an actress hired out of Montreal.

[3] Spier, who had previously starred in minor roles prior to the film, would later go on to have a successful voice acting career.

[16]According to Makichuk, prior to the depletion of the budget, his original intention was to film a much longer ending, including an extended chase sequence with Spier and the Wendigo creature on the rooftop of the Deer Lodge hotel.

[19] On October 29, 1981, director Makichuk appeared in a CBC television interview segment promoting the film, which included the airing of two scenes.

[20][21] Director James Makichuk stated in an interview that he was trying to get a DVD released through Netflix with a quality print of the film.

[26] In The Blockbuster Entertainment Guide to Movies and Videos (1999), the film was rated two-and-a-half stars out of five, deemed "an absurd thriller.

"[27] Eric Cotenas of DVD Drive-In noted the film's prominent atmosphere and drew comparisons to Stephen King's The Shining as well as cinematographer John Holbrook’s "aesthetic response to the desolate location.