The Keep (1983)

Excellent but underrated film

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

At times, THE KEEP is very atmospheric, foreboding and suspenseful, with solid acting by Ian McKellen and Jurgen Prochnow. Unfortunately, THE KEEP was a troubled production (its story should emerge in a KEEP documentary to be released in 2017). In short, weather conditions were difficult, Mann kept re-visualizing the film (especially its primary villain) during production, and worst of all, his head Effects expert, Wally Veevers, died during early post-production, leaving a number of key effect scenes unfinished. Paramount then refused further production monies, time for proper sound mixing, and edited the rough film's 210 minutes down to a "theater-friendly" 96 minutes, resulting in numerous plot holes. Paramount's brief theater release was followed by home video on VHS, but in part due to rights issues over the music (a moody yet haunting score by Tangerine Dream) has kept THE KEEP from an official Paramount DVD release. In recent interviews (also part of the upcoming documentary), Michael Mann showed little interest in revitalizing this film.

I've wanted to write a review ever since this disaster came out, but that was years ago! Perfect example of how Hollywood wrecks an awesome book! I hope someday there will be another movie more true to the book, but I'm sure that's just wishful thinking! So much missing....Molasar's appearance, the climactic fight scene and Glaeken becoming mortal! I mean what the hell was Michael Mann thinking? No wonder this movie bombed when it was released! I read somewhere that F. Paul Wilson the author of the book hates this film and what was done to it. Now I know this review is about 32 or 33 years too late but now I can cross this off my list of stuff I meant to do a long long long time ago! Whew! I feel better now! LOL!

A German battalion, led by humanitarian Captain Woermann (Jürgen Prochnow), is sent to guard a strategic pass in the Carpathian mountains, setting up base in a centuries old fortress shunned by the locals. After a pair of greedy soldiers prise out one of the many metal crosses embedded in the keep's walls, they unwittingly release Molasar, a supernatural Jewish entity known as a golem, who begins to kill the troops.An SS division is deployed to try and find out who is responsible for the deaths, Major Kaempffer (Gabriel Byrne) believing the attacks to be the work of partisans. After strange writing is found on the fortress wall, the Germans draft in Jewish academic Dr. Theodore Cuza (Ian McKellen, putting in a very hammy performance) and his daughter Eva (Alberta Watson) to translate the text. When Eva is assaulted by two SS guards, the golem rescues her and confronts Theodore; sensing the ailing academic's hatred of the Nazis, the demon promises payback if the doctor will find and move the talisman that keeps it trapped in the keep.Meanwhile, Glaeken Trismegestus (Scott Glenn), an immortal being with glowing eyes, travels to the fortress to try and prevent the golem from being unleashed upon the world.I love me some Nazi horror and with a promising premise that pits two powerful forces of evil against each other—the despicable SS and the monstrous Molasar—this should have been great, especially considering the talent involved. But even though award-winning director Michael Mann delivers a film full of stylish touches and terrific production designs, his film proves far from wholly satisfying, thanks to stilted performances, some horribly dated visual effects (and lots of dry ice!), and an intrusive and totally unsuitable score by Tangerine Dream that oozes the '80s with every note (I really like TD's brooding synth sound, but it simply doesn't suit the era in which the film is set).The result is a film that both impresses AND invites derision, at times exhibiting flair and atmosphere, but looking a lot like a tacky '80s pop video for much of the remainder.

The Keep is based on the 1981 horror novel, of the same name, by American author F. Paul Wilson. The Keep was the first of six novels, called 'The Adversary Cycle'TAGLINEThey were all drawn to the Keep.The soldiers who brought death.The father and daughter fighting for life.The people who have always feared it.And the one man who knows its secret...Tonight, they will all face the evil.SYNOPSISSet in April 1941, Nazi soldiers are using the Keep of a castle, which is set high in the Romanian Carpathian mountains, as a base. Unfortunately, the soldiers are being killed off one-by-one by a mysterious entity. The Nazi commander asks for help and an SS extermination squad is sent to remedy the problem. Soon the SS soldiers are dying, too, so the SS officer has a Professor and his daughter, from Bucharest, brought to the Keep, in order to find out what is killing his men. The Professor, an expert in old Slovanic and Romanian dialects, is charged with deciphering a cryptic message that has been left on the walls of the Keep, in blood. The entity turns out to be an old evil, from an age of sorcerers, that has been imprisoned beneath the Keep for millennia. Seeing a use in the Professor, who is wheelchair bound, the entity promises him his health and youth back in return for his help. Soon after, an immortal who built the Keep as a prison arrives and, with the help of the Professors daughter, fights the evil.REVIEWAlthough not full of action or the blood-and-guts horror of recent times, this is a classic of the genre. Boasting a cast that includes Ian McKellen, Scott Glenn, Jurgen Prochnow, Gabriel Byrne, Alberta Waton & William Morgan Sheppard, this should have been an instant hit. The screenplay, written by Michael Mann, is short and concise with the actors 'becoming' their characters, to add power to the story. Filmed with hardly any colour and with very few sets, the film can come across as slightly claustrophobic, which only adds to the heightening terror. The soundtrack, by Tangerine Dream, gives the film an almost dreamlike quality, which is at total odds with the 1941 setting of Nazi occupied Romania. But, somehow, it all works. When it was released, it became an instant 'cult' hit but was a critical and financial disaster for Paramount.LATEST NEWSIn July 2006, F. Paul Wilson made 'The Keep' into a graphic novel. His reason for this was to visualise what his version of the film would have been like.