User Reviews

To call this film an oddity or a curiosity piece is a bit of an understatement. Actually if you look at this, there's already a lot of reviews here, so strangely enough this film is not as forgotten as its ashamed director would like it to be.

THE KEEP starts out extremely well with a spellbindingly dreamlike and somewhat pretentious sequence with the Germans rolling into a small Romanian hamlet during WW2. Things remain interesting as long as the film keeps up the bizarreness and borderline out-of-place Tangerine Dream synthesizer music. However, things get silly when it turns out that the Germans have unwittingly raised a demon from a thousand year slumber who goes on a slow killing spree while fallen angel Scott Glenn works his way back there to save the earth. Things rapidly unravel as the promising setup settles into a plot which manages the amazing task of becoming nonsensical and routine simultaneously!

A few things guarantee though that this imperfect film will forever have my attention. For one, it actually does a decent job of melding the horror and war genres and gives a brief glimpse of the completely ignored Romanian complicity in World War 2. It actually interestingly manages to give the German soldiers some characterization as well. Another thing this film has going for it is Michael Mann's completely OCD touch to the whole thing which oddly suits the subject matter.

Not to mention the inspired casting; Jurgen Prochnow shines in his first major English-language role as a conflicted Wehrmacht captain matched by a cold and calculating Gabriel Byrne as his closed-minded S.S. superior. Scott Glenn and Alberta Watson do about as much as they can with their very underwritten protagonal characters and Ian McKellen hams things up considerably as a Jewish professor who tries to maneuver the demon into destroying the Germans for him.

Actually, come to think of it, this film would have done just fine without Glenn or Watson - they seem only to exist to sidetrack the film into romantic drama territory which adds nothing. Much more interesting is McKellen's inner conflict and the exchanges between Prochnow and Byrne. Things seem awfully rushed at the film's last act considering the slow pace through most of the film, but that may be more the work of studio meddling than anything.

Definitely worth picking up if you're into cinematic curiosities. Fits right in with THE SOLDIER and THIEF if you're looking for early 80's murky drama accompanied by Tangerine Dream, Alberta Watson, and Robert Prosky.

I wish that Mann had been a more experienced director when he tackled this really bizarre film, but all things considered it is really a damn fine movie. The soundtrack has some problems, but the dialogue and acting are so interesting that the faults of the film are balanced out. I especially enjoyed the conversations between Byrne's SS Major and Prochnow's German Army Captain. In fact, I almost wish that the majority of the film had dealt with this rather than the bizarre supernatural stuff. I really do advise this film to anyone that is interested in strange cinema. If you can get past the unfortunate flaws of the film, I think you will notice that it is actually a kind of fascinating little movie. I have seen it many times (first back in '85) and still find it a good watch (although most of my friends do not). In other words, this movie is not for everyone, but I thought it is quite interesting.

The Keep is weird. It has extraordinary visuals and some powerful sequences, but a bit too much of the action is tricky to follow because the scripting is muddled and some of the dialogue is delivered in an inexpressive and unclear manner. The film is based on a book by F. Paul Wilson, which is one of my all-time favourite novels.

The action revolves around a forbidding Romanian fortress set in a hillside. It is occupied by German soldiers during WWII, but the soldiers are foolish enough to disturb some of the glowing crosses embedded into the walls. From within the keep, an ancient and powerful evil force is unleashed, and only a mysterious drifter called Glaeken (Scott Glenn) knows what it is and how to destroy it.

The scene in which the evil is released is brilliant. Two soldiers venture into the inner depths of the keep, and one is mutilated by the unseen power. Another terrifc scene involves old cripple Ian McKellen being given a new lease of youth by the evil force. There's also a beautiful and erotic love scene between Glenn and Alberta Watson. Other aspects of the film aren't so good. As mentioned, there's a lack of clarity in the story telling. Also, the final conflict between Glenn and the evil force is hasty and under-developed. The pace of the film suffers from a slow and rather uninspiring opening half-hour. However, genreally speaking, The Keep is worth watching, especially if you're a fan of the book.

A few of a detachment of German Army soldiers are mysteriously murdered in a Romanian citadel - 1942. The SS arrives to investigate and put a stop to the killings. However, there is an evil force at work within the Keep which will do anything to escape.

The Keep is a high concept yarn. The initial find set up and shooting of the villagers are stand out moments. The visuals and effects are stylistic, strong lighting, wind machines, optical layers are very much of there day. The special make-up has a startling 'cool' look to it, the 'Molasar' and Trismegestus designs are particularly well executed. Notably are the cast which includes the likes of Gabriel Byrne and Robert Prosky. Jürgen Prochnow is on fine form as Captain Klaus Woermann, Scott Glenn is intense and Ian McKellen is memorable as Dr. Theodore Cuza. The sets are well crafted, the on location shoot adds credence to the WWII setting and costumes add to the believability.

Nevertheless, rather than being intriguing with a slow pace The Keep plods along without building any real tension or suspense. The editing is a little jumbled, it appears to be a mixture of good and bad takes leaving it somewhat disjointed especially in the final reel, it may have benefited from only using those 'good' takes with a shorter running time. Tangerine Dream's score is of its time but doesn't compliment the scenes, it's highly intrusive and takes away much of the atmosphere, subtlety and eeriness.

Even with director Michael Mann at the helm and given the excellent story based on F. Paul Wilson's novel and Mann's adequate screenplay it never gels together. It's not sure whether it wants to be an art house, MTV video piece or gritty supernatural. Should Mann had attempted this recently he may have been able to fuse it together satisfyingly. I suppose retrospect is a fine thing. Curiously, Mann's workprint ran for 3 hours, after the studio saw what he had they wanted it cut to no longer than 90 minutes and assigned it second-level advertising. Mann has since distanced himself from the film.

Through all its disjointedness The Keep is an interesting film with a strong mythical good versus evil theme that plays on old religious fables. Molasar (Michael Carter) is the most menacing evil entity/being ever committed to celluloid and it's a shame that this has fallen into obscurity robbing the character and The Keep of even cult status.

This exciting movie is set during WW2 , when a detachment of the German army (commanded by Jurgen Prochnow) is sent to guard a mysterious Rumanian keep located on a strategic mountain pass in Carpathian Alps . The Nazis ignore villagers' warnings and of a Ortodox monk (Robert Prosky)about a weird presence inside. But one of the soldiers unwittingly releases an unknown spirit trapped within the walls. As the soldiers are mysteriously killed , the SS (Gabriel Byrne) arrives to deal with that is thought to be partisan activity . What the SS encounters, however, is an evil force trapped within the citadel, a menace that will do anything to flee. With no way of combating the force, the Nazis have no option but to seek the aid of a Jewish man (Ian McKellen) and his daughter (Alberta Watson), who are both knowledge about the keep and who can translate signs vital to combating the rare menace . Meanwhile appears a strange man (Scott Glenn) with supernatural power, an angel exterminator named Glaeken.

This fantastic movie packs action, violence, terror, suspense with creepy and eerie scenarios. The film is based on Paul Wilson novel , also screenwriter along with Michael Mann. Some versions include different endings and additional footage. The star-studded cast is well headed by Jurgen Prochnow, Scott Glenn and Ian McKellen and excellent plethora of secondaries as Gabriel Byrne, Robert Prosky, William Morgan Sheppard and a very secondary role by Bruce Payne and Roselie Crutchley. Impressive production design with breathtaking scenarios by John Box. Colorful cinematography with flog and fume and plenty of lights and dark by Alex Thomson. Eerie musical composed by means of synthesizer is made by Tangerine Dream (Christopher Frank, among others). The motion picture is professionally directed by Michael Mann, a successful director and usual screenwriter from the 80s with several hits (Manhunter,The last Mohican, Heat,Insider, Ali, Miami vice). The story will appeal to terror genre fans and WWII buffs.

A group of German soldiers led by Captain Klaus Woermann are sent to take guard at a Keep near a Romanian pass. One of the soldiers believes that a cross-embedded in the wall is made of silver and digs it out. Only to release an evil presence, known as Molasar. It knocks off a couple of soldiers every night. Sturmbahnfuhrer Kaempffer and his SS patrol arrive in town to stop the problem. They believe it's simply partisan activity, but they soon find out its far from it. So they get the help of a Jewish man, Dr Theodore Cuza (along with his daughter Eva) who knows a bit about this Keep. Meanwhile, a mysterious man, Glaeken Trismegatus is on his way to stop this evil.

Wow! But huh? Yeah, after spending a long time trying to see this hybrid movie. I finally got the chance and it was a very flawed, but reasonable effort by director / writer Michael Mann. I remember reading the quite interesting and extremely unique premise and being totally compelled by the idea of it. I guess not reading F. Paul Wilson's novel is a bittersweet thing, as I came in with very little expectations, but on the on other hand I was left clueless about certain disjointed sub- plots. Anyhow It's Mann's vision we got. The material is terribly mangled, jadedly rushed and comes across as pure pulp. However it's Mann's surreal direction, Alex Thomson's arresting photography and the moody electronic music score by Tangerine Dream that clicks in this atmospheric combination of fantasy, war and horror.

Sure, there was interference by the studio in the final product (with a a lot of scenes hitting the cutting room floor), but Mann seemed more preoccupied with his visuals than with the plot and characters. They became nothing more than forgettable background features. The storyline was all over the ship with forced details (like the creation of evil entity) and a script riddled with confusing holes. There's an odd assortment of performances. Those who stood out were the humane German captain played by Jurgen Prochnow and Gabriel Byrne as the tyrant SS officer. Alberta Watson as Eva felt awkward and Ian McKellen was fine. However Glenn Scott looked as if he was somewhere else in a very laboured role as Glaeken Trismegatus. An intriguing character that had VERY little to do and was hard to understand.

Visually there are plenty of potently dreamy images that spontaneously pop up. There's sharp craftsmanship in depicting certain sequences that just stick in your mind. Like when Byrne's character encounters Molasar. Worked into this is a very effective score that works the emotions thoroughly and creates a very out-of-this-world vibe. What captures this layout beautifully is Thomson's photography. His always in the right spot to get that impressive shot and original angle that just lingers on screen. The special effects is a big (if over-extended) light show that has style and the monster design can look a bit rubbery, but eventually the monster design by Nick Maley does come off. Mann knows how to stage a visually powerful scene, but if your looking for suspense. There are very few build-ups and little scares at all. The pace is slow, but the eerie setting holds up tightly and has a huge impact in the overall feel.

It isn't perfect, but it's a really unusual and hypnotic good vs. evil opus by Mann.

My understanding is that Michael Mann produced a film which was about 3 hours long and spanned most of the book - keeping largely to the plot as written.

However that was deemed unreleasable- remember it isn't until recently that the powers that be have decided that cinema going audiences can cope with films of more than 90 minutes length.

So... the film was brutally cut down into the deeply bizarre and unintelligible mess which was subsequently released.

The question is: when are we going to get a fully and faithfully restored full length DVD reissue? Surely there would be a market for it? It could even get a cinematic release!

Some people mention movies like LORD OF THE RINGS and BLACK HAWK DOWN as being extremely poor stories saved by their technical truimphs and watching THE KEEP I can understand where they`re coming from . This is a visually striking atmospheric movie with a rather confused and under developed script

All the best aspects of THE KEEP are mainly to do with what`s on screen . Alex Thomson`s cinematography is awesome , check out the scene of the fishing boat sailing into the rising sun , or the full moon shining out from behind the clouds or that fantastic scene where Lutz looks into the cavern as the camera pans back for almost a full minute . Michael Mann brings an unspeakably doomladen atmosphere to the movie and manages a quite remarkable image featuring the initial appearance of Molasar . Considering the budget is only 6 million dollars the special effects are quite good for this scene featuring an image of smoke , light and a haunting soundtrack . Mind you this one of the very few instances where Tangerine Dreams synth soundtrack is successful , elsewhere in the movie it`s very inappropiate . The acting too is a mixed bag . Most of the cast are merely okay while Gabriel Byrne plays just about the most blood chilling and convincing Nazi I`ve ever seen in a movie , but Scott Glen is wooden and Ian McKellen gives an awful performance as Dr Cuza , a Jewish intellectual who seems to have all the speech patterns and mannerisms of a Hollywood producer . Having said that it is interesting to see McKellen play someone who goes through a character arc similar to the one Frodo goes through in THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Michael Mann`s treatment of the screenplay is far less successful than his directing . A gestapo death squad battle against a monster , er so who are we supposed to root for ? During the war even some hardened Waffen SS men despised these murder squads and this is echoed by the character interaction between Captain Woermann and Major Kaempffer . However it turns out Woermann has profoundly anti fascist ideals in a conversation with Dr Cuza which means he stops being a character and becomes a cliche . Was everyone in Germany at this time either a Nazi or an anti Nazi with no in between ? I just wish Mann had blurred the lines a little . It should also be pointed out that Woermann`s first words of dialogue actually do sound like they come from a Nazi stormtrooper which indicates Mann has written inconsistently for the character . Another serious error with the screenplay is that it`s never really explained who Glaeken and Molasar are . Some people have described Molasar as a Golem , but he`s not . A Golem is basically a clay statue from Jewish folklore not as is Molasar an ethereal being of great power . Of course it could be that because Molasar needs Cuza`s help he appears to Cuza as a Golem but once again this seems to confused a lot of people due to the script , and I`m puzzled as to how Glaeken fits into all this . When adapting a screenplay everything should be made clear on screen to everybody , not just to people who have read the source novel

I gave THE KEEP seven out of ten mainly due to the technical achievements ( Remember this only cost $6 million ) but a word of warning only watch this if it`s in a widescreen letterbox format . I saw this on Sky movies the other night and a poor quality scanned version was used which meant the visual impact was totally absent

This movie begins with a German army squad traveling through the Carpathian Mountains in Romania to secure the Dinu Mountain Pass during the first days of Operation Barbarossa during World War II. Commanding this squad is "Captain Klaus Woermann" (Jurgen Prochnow) who is both competent and combat experienced. Upon arrival at a small Romanian village near an abandoned citadel known as "The Keep" he decides to set up operations. What he doesn't know is that rather than being built to keep intruders out, "The Keep" was built to keep something--in. That being the case, it isn't too long before German soldiers are being killed by some mysterious entity despite the best efforts of Captain Woermann. Not long after he requests a relocation point, a special SS unit arrives under the command of "SD Sturmbannfuhrer Eric KKaempffer" (Gabriel Byrne) who takes command of the area and decides to execute villagers as a way of containing what he believes is partisan activity. But there is no partisan activity. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was an interesting movie which made great use of smoke and music to create a surreal atmosphere. Unfortunately, the director (Michael Mann) went too far with these stylistic enhancements which crowded out everything else. Along with that the special effects for the "entity" were clearly second-rate and that didn't help either. In short, the film had a good plot but lacked the necessary time to really develop which in turn limited the overall effect. Accordingly, I rate this movie as about average.

Nazis guard a citadel that harbors a dangerous force that starts wreaking havoc and death upon them, forcing an uneasy alliance with a Jewish professional who can stop it.

The film was a critical and commercial failure, losing almost three million dollars. Even F. Paul Wilson, who wrote the original novel, says of the movie, "Visually intriguing, but otherwise utterly incomprehensible." I will agree with Wilson about the film being "visually intriguing", particularly some of the earliest shots of the keep and the blue and gray hues used... it is very crisp and stimulating, and any cinematographer should take notes from this one.

Critic Tim Brayton echoes Wilson, saying, "After a brilliant opening act, the plot gets flabbier and flabbier until around the half-way point, when it stops making any sense whatsoever." This may be blamed on the severe editing, or perhaps on Mann's desire to make an epic when the studio would not allow it -- cutting more than half of the film is bound to create plot holes and continuity gaps.

I find it interesting that the last time this film was publicly released was in 1995 on laserdisc, a format that is basically dead. Allegedly, the DVD (or BD) has not been released because they cannot get the rights to the Tangerine Dream songs, and also because Michael Mann has disowned it and apparently prefers his 3.5 hour cut. That Mann has gone on to such success and his film is hard to track down (but available on Netflix) is incredible.

Michael Mann surely knows how to make movies. At least in regards to atmosphere and music aesthetics. With "The Keep" Michael Mann ventures into an odd world of Nazi-period Eastern Europe set against the back-drop of even greater ancient evil, which has been unwittingly released into our world. A Nazi unit camps out at a fortified keep in a remote Romanian mountain are. Where two soldiers attempt to loot the walls from a golden cross, an untold ethereal evil seeps through to our world and silently starts murdering the soldiers. This awakens a mysterious protector (Scott Glenn), who ventures to the keep to stop this force from escaping its prison. Based on the novel F. Paul Wilson, comes a tale that despite its significantly talented cast falls into obscurity because of a strikingly underdeveloped story.

For one thing, the characters themselves are a very enticing bunch, rife with potential. Captain Klaus Woermann (Jürgen Prochnow) is a soldier in war-time, more emotionally attuned to his humanity, not so much to Nazi ideology, leading his army through a sense of obligation - a striking detachment from typical presentations of II World War Germans. The ruthless Major Kaempffer (Gabriel Byrne), leader of a Gestapo death squad, works as his direct contrast, fully indoctrinated and mercilessly cold, capable of killing women and children to achieve his goals (Byrne's chilling portrayal nonetheless remains a highlight of the movie). Into this construct arrives Jewish historian Theodore Cuza (Ian McKellen) and his daughter Eva (Alberta Watson), who are brought in from the camps to aide in solving the deadly puzzle. For Theodore this task brings the promise of an ultimate solution to the Nazis, as the maleficent force promises their destruction in return for his freedom.

As these characters intertwine in the misty Gothic backdrop created by Michael Mann and his talented cinematographer Alex Thomson, a sense of dread permeates (aided in part by great haunting atmospherics by Tangerine Dream). The slow camera-work and detailed sets, reminiscent of the best of Dario Argento, captivate with their gloomy consistency. Also the special effects are so perfectly 80-ish with their crude muckish gruesomeness, something that seems so lost in the perfection of CGI-induced horror. Slowly however the confused script and B-class elements so widespread in the 1980s, start to overrun the qualities, which made the movie so promising. Riden with clichéd portrayal and short-cuts in terms of story development, Mann ends up with a bungled mess of a horror, which neither frightens nor manages to maintain the eerie essence. Nonetheless the look of the movie offers some degree of satisfaction, it will undoubtedly remain a skeleton in Michael Mann's closet.

Romania, the Carpathian Alps, 1942. In this European backwater, a squad of German troops, led by Captain Woermann, occupy an isolated hamlet, with orders to guard the mountain pass. They enshrine themselves in the vast, lowering, Gothic Keep which overshadows the whole valley. Some of the troops make no attempt to disguise their boredom, and despite the warnings from the odd, reticent 'caretaker', it isn't long before two of the restless soldiers prise open part of the keep's heavily fortified interior, seeking their fortune. What they find is something else entirely other… One-by-one a malevolent force murders the men, and the beleaguered Woermann asks for re-location – but instead gets a squad of bloodthirsty SS troops, hell-bent on ferreting out the supposed 'partisan' threat. The local priest forces them to pursue a more investigative, by saying that a scholar, Dr. Cuza, might be able to shed some light on the keep's origins… Cuza, who is summoned with his beautiful daughter in tow, is Jewish. Meanwhile, a mysterious mariner, awakened from afar by a change in the earth, crosses land and sea to get to the keep.

And thus the stage is set for WW2 and man's various grievances and foibles to be played out in mythic miniature. The Keep was Michael Mann's second theatrical feature after Thief, his third if you count (the terrific) Jericho Mile. It pretty much flopped on its original release, and interest in the film is pretty small. There's been the odd screening on TV, a small VHS release in the UK in the early 2000s (when I first saw it), a big fan website being started up, run by a Mr. Stephane Pieter, the odd rep screening, and also a comic book drawn by Matthew Smith. However, the film's hard-to-find nature and its overwhelming oddness in the Mann canon has worked against it. Paramount pictures don't seem to have a great deal of enthusiasm for their film, so it isn't out on DVD yet. Furthermore, the writer of the novel, F. Paul Wilson, has never made any attempt to hide his disgust for the film.

The films is obviously the product of a stressful production in which there were to many influences jostling for dominance. This isn't to say that it isn't eerie, frightening, compelling or thought-provoking, because it's all those things. However, it's never any of those things for long enough. It's often a bit pretentious, boring and never as blood-curdling as Wilson's original book, which was a straightforward, no-frills shocker. What's odd about Mann's film is that while it strains for a sophistication above it's generic roots, it misses out on the un-forced passages of contemplation in the book, where Wilson ruminated on his different character's inner desires. This no-nonsense approach on Wilson's part had a crucial grounding effect. Without it, the film often comes across as a curious fairy-tale (in a bad way), and at other times plain daft. It's hinted at that the soldiers might be there to harness the monster for military use (why else would they be there?), there are nods Vampire mythology (Scott Glenn's magical weapon resembles a vampire hunter's kit and the monster literally feeds on the men) and Romania's relationship with German at the time, but otherwise the film is divorced from any kid of reality or genre. This means that Mann's big idea, to explain the emotional attraction of fascism and then confront the Nazis with the ultimate embodiment of fascism, which proves too much even for them, has no gravity at all: it's just rootless drama with no consistent stylistic grounding. The film's set design and cinematography do help him somewhat, though, overshadowing all the characters like much of Nazi architecture and enforcing the idea that human and supernatural evil share a common ambition to control everything.

Ultimately, the film fails to confront the same challenge all films in the war-horror sub-genre: how can you convince the audience that the other-worldly horror is greater than the evil of man. To his credit, Mann addresses in it in an original way, and tries to say the two are differently similar: the age old evil of 'Molasar' (never named in the film, but listed in the credits and faithful to the book), designed to look like some demonic Teutonic Knight, was born of hatred and a lust for power, much like the Nazis. When Major Kaempffer is finally confronted by the monster, he asks where he's come from, vainly trying to ward him off with a cross. Molasar replies with a weary condescension: "where am I from. I am… From you." This exchange, one of the film's more frightening and atmospheric moments, takes place in The Keeps main entrance, knee deep in the blasted corpses of troops Molasar has just massacred, bringing to mind charred, piled corpses of Holocaust victims.

The Keep is considerably more thoughtful and ambitious than the likes of Outpost, The Bunker and Deathwatch (films it obviously inspired), but in the end it's broken-backed film, because Mann fails to marry of the war and horror genres with the same success he had in matching crime and horror in Manhunter. At times, the film is simply too frustrating, or tedious, to be compelling. The Korean R-Point was a much more creepy war-horror movie, making the grim observation that the horror unleashed on its small island setting is cyclical, like the cycle of war, an idea Mann never touches upon.

However, The keep remains more than just an interesting 'curio' as it's often termed, thanks largely to the scale of the production and some truly draw-dropping visual effects: the Nazi troops passage through the mountain pass in the opening credits, with Tangerine Dream's distinctive score rattling in the background, is a triumph, and the troop's violation of the vast crypt, the 'camera' pulling away for an age, is magnificent. It's up to you if you want to invest the time, energy and money is discovering this little-known, little-loved but memorable film.

Quite a simple, strong concept let down by terrible execution. The music isn't just dated, it doesn't reflect the scenes, is completely mis-paced and sounds like one man with his synthesiser. The audio is a shocker. Someone decided that emulating tinnitus was the way to emphasise the finale. Many lines are completely inaudible and sound like they we're recorded in a wind tunnel. The effects are massively reliant on dry ice, with stagey set piece scenery straight out of bad rep theatre and severely dated special effects. Lots of people have written about the vicious editing but that doesn't excuse melodramatic, unmemorable lines straight out of second grade Hammer horror. A good cast delivers some pretty hammy performances, especially McClellan. And the direction seals the deal, reminding me of Ken Russell's worst excesses. Makes you wonder whether the production team were largely amateurs, or perhaps used to making music videos or ads. Needs to be remade

Possibly this isn't Michael Mann's best - or even next to next to best - movie, but I make no apologies for liking it quite a lot. In fact, my chief complaint about this movie is that it has never been released on DVD so that the full texture and sense of this piece could be better experienced and appreciated. It is a travesty with all the tripe that leaps from the undergrossing screen to overblown DVD these days, that no studio has had the stones to release THE KEEP on DVD.

In a weird, connect the dots fashion, I consider this film to be a critical milestone in Mann's directorial evolution. In and of itself, this makes the film entirely watchable, if not "important". The movie should be indispensable to Mann's devotees, and I find it surprising that it is not. As much as Manhunter (one of my all time favorites) and Heat (right up there with them) are ranked by most as very good films, THE KEEP, if for no other reason than its novelty should be accorded more respect than it gets.

Read the other reviews here and you can more or less understand the story line. The salient facts are there. I differ on several points, however.

First, I don't consider THE KEEP to be a 'horror movie' or even sci-fi, although it certainly has elements of both. I have no recollection of how the film was billed when it opened in '83 (in fact, I didn't see it until it appeared on Showtime, significantly later), but if you are looking for a 'horror' or 'sci-fi' flick, THE KEEP will leave you short. It is more of a 'thriller' if you had to pigeon-hole it, but even that doesn't really work, and this is what I think what confuses many who have seen and subsequently slammed this movie. To those who want a nifty tight film with all the proper cinematic and artistic "T"s crossed and "I"s dotted, you won't find it here and you will be eternally frustrated. What you will find is a unique, visionary realization of an essentially often told story of conflict between ultimate good and ultimate evil, spun in an arguably overly symbolic context.

Second, much apparently has been said about the lameness of the sets and special effects and accents and soundtrack and costumes, etc etc. I can't ever know for sure, but I don't think that Mann, with all his individual sense of style (remember, his visions and realizations virtually defined a substantial part of the 80s -- whether you liked them or not) was all that concerned about the impact of the trappings, but more on what they allowed the story to play against. The interplay of color (or lack thereof), background, character and music all create an enjoyable tapestry, best viewed from several feet away. If you get hung up on the minutae of this film, you've lost the message. In my personal opinion, this isn't a movie that should be watched critically - because it will fail in many ways, as others have already observed. Rather, you should suspend not only your disbelief but your pretentiousness and just let the movie sort of flow around you. It's a bit like drift diving in Cozumel - the warm current moves you along to the degree that details can get lost and fuzzy, but you eventually realize that's what makes the experience different and wonderful.

The music certainly isn't appropriate to the period (1941 Nazi-occupied Romania) but then this isn't a period piece. Quite the contrary, the Tangerine Dream soundtrack adds to the gauzy, dreamlike quality which to me is what makes this movie so compelling and different. The acting isn't the best and in places, yes, the audio is pretty bad, but when considered as a whole, I believe the movie succeeds. My VHS copy of THE KEEP is now getting threadworn from overplay and I hope that someone, somewhere, will bring it out on DVD.

A strong 8 out of 10.

It remains one of the most frustrating experiences for a Michael Mann fan to go through. The Keep is by definition a mixed bag, a collage of weirdness, tackiness and visual smarts that are great but in all honesty are in the wrong movie. It even boasts a cast of considerable talent, where Messrs Jürgen Prochnow, Scott Glenn, Ian McKellen and Gabriel Byrne lead off from the front. But the troubled production and numerous edits and cuts of the piece have left it as a scarred but fascinating oddity.

Based on F. Paul Wilson's novel of the same name, plot is set in World War II Romania. When members of the German army hole up at a Carpathian Castle, they get more than they ever could have bargained for when greed unleashes an evil demon upon all who dwell in the vicinity. In short order the German's are requested to seek out the aid of a Jewish historian (McKellen), who is freed from a death camp and hurried along to Carpathia to help the Nazis. Then there is the mysterious Glaeken Trismegestus (Glenn), a man of seriously scary eyes who is making a journey to the castle for the sake of humanity.

Now, there are a lot of reviews out there for The Keep, but since there are quite a few versions out there with different endings, it's difficult to know which one is being reviewed. But the over riding factor leans towards it being a mess of a movie. Wilson himself was greatly angered by the version he watched, which may well have been the original 3 hour plus cut? Calling it an incoherent monstrosity. This latest cut I saw was the "theatrical" version, complete with an extra "fan edit" ending, and I'm indebted to an on line friend and those "fans" who have given me the chance to see two endings that I hadn't seen before! Yet the one constant is Tangerine Dream's LSD inspired musical score!

Mann is early in his career here and trying his best to make something thematically potent and visually arresting, but it ultimately is done down by mixed ambitions and budget restrictions, where no amount of editing and fog machine usage can mask the problems. In fact it's now thought that Mann wasn't even directing come the second half of the movie?! It was an experience that would send him away from the big screen and into other work for the next few years. Thankfully for us Mann fans it proved to be a blessing in disguise, for he would return to make a serious mark on cinema from the director's chair. But with that still comes the disappointment that The Keep is not the thoughtful atmospheric classic that Mann envisaged when he started out to make it. 6/10

The Keep is an absurdly ambitious film in which the visual elements are so epic and marvelous that it makes the plot and character development feel like an amateurish joke in comparison. Though everyone gives competent acting performances, the story is far too simple, skeletal, and formulaic to allow them any real depth. Of course, it is widely known that the greatest reason why the movie likely feels this way is because director Michael Mann intended for it to be a 3 1/2 hour movie, while the producers (Paramount) cut it down to an hour and a half against his wishes - I do feel that this lengthy runtime would have served two great purposes: fleshing out the story and characters, and doing a better job of matching the vastness and majesty of the visual presentation and the colossal themes the film presents.

The movie is definitely worth watching at least once for the unique and spooky environment, the VERY 80's and very fun visual effects, some unique thematic ideas, the Tangerine Dream music score, and to see the first film performance of Gandalf himself, Sir Ian McKellan, but it's far from perfect - it's widely known to be a massive failure of a film, but especially if you dig 80's sci-fi or horror, you need to give this anomaly a watch. The Michael Mann trajectory is so bizarre...to go from Thief, to THIS, to Manhunter, and then to Last of The Mohicans and HEAT in the 90's...wild stuff. Regardless of the fact that Mann now "disowns" this film entirely, I would LOVE to see the 3.5 director's cut of this film on a brilliant Blu Ray transfer - this movie deserves to be seen in full quality, and the way the creator intended! Maybe they could fix some of those bizarre segments where the audio just seems to be missing as well...Wild, wild stuff.

After seeing Collateral at the cinema and loving it, I thought I would look up Michael Mann and see what else he had done. I had never heard of him before so was surprised to see that he was the guy behind Miami Vice... don't get me wrong... I'm not a fan, but I have heard of it.

Anyways, I red the description for The Keep and it sounded interesting and it had Ian McKellen starring so I thought, I'll give this one a whirl, as a horror fan anyway, I love the whole supernatural/horror deal.

I couldn't find it to buy anywhere, so like everyone else in the same situation I turned to eBay where I found a number of people selling this film. That being an indication that the film wasn't too good and one that I also ignored, I bid and won a copy and watched it the other day.

I've rarely seen such a fresh take on an idea so held back by poor handling. Barring Ian McKellen and Jurgen Prochnow, the cast left a lot to be desired and having said that, even Ian McKellen wasn't on top form... I mean, what the hell was that accent about. The effects were OK, you can't fault them too much given that its 1983 we're talking about. The sound and image quality weren't brilliant though, the volume of the film didn't even remain consistent, I was constantly putting the volume up to hear whispering characters and then being blown away when they began shouting. The location where this film was shot did allow for the occasional impressive shot and I'll admit, some of the powerful (80s-style) music, although sometimes used inappropriately and for too long, was good and did contribute to the film's atmosphere a lot.

All in all however, I thought this film could have been so much better. So... Michael Mann... I loved Collateral... but dude, what were you thinking when you made this... I think your mind may of been elsewhere.

I hate it when business people change a film's artistic choices for simply not having the brains to understand what they are watching.

When I first saw the keep at the Valhala Theatre I loved it.

The great score by Tangerine Dream.

The great cast, their costumes and the WW2 German ordnance.

The great sets and atmosphere of the whole thing was at the time different and epic.

But when the film ended, something seemed missing, the film seemed too short and it seemed that parts of the story went no where and other plot lines appeared for no reason.

I picked up the book the film is based upon (A damn good read) and had to admit that some of the film's plots where incomplete or missing altogether.

When adapting anything to a film you have to drop what is not necessary (killing your babies in film speak) especially if the film is to fit the regular 2 hrs or so run time. But the studio I later found out went nuts, they seem to have randomly removed just short of TWO HOURS from the film.

Michael Mann's plan was to trim it down to around Two hours running time for the final cut which is perfectly reasonable but the studio threw out most of it and what they left was not edited professionally. I do suspect an accountant came in and just took out at random footage equal to the running time required by whichever executive (village idiot) orded the re-edit.

Some studio suit needs a HOB NAILED BOOT UP THEIR CLACKER for this!

Film executives are their to demand changes for business reasons only, they are not there to change artistic choices as their sphere of knowledge is BUSINESS only and not ART!

Seriously, even with the stupid editing (BUTCHERING) of more than half this film it still came out well, but it could have been EPIC!

Fortunately I had not read the book this film is based upon before I saw the film otherwise I would be reviewing how much I hate this film instead. The friend who suggested we see this film was furious as he recommended it based upon the book.

We can only hope that somewhere the missing footage is still stored away and not been consigned to the furnace so we can some day see the proper version of this film.

What hasn't been said about "The Keep." - Well, "It's a great picture" for one."

Scott Glenn gives an all time nadir of a performance. He's as wooden as the 'special' effects.

Ian McKellen struggles to hide his embarrassment.

Gabriel Byrne, by the end of the film, can't even be bothered to look too scared of the 7 foot demon (but then again who can blame him!)

Jürgen Prochnow plays Jürgen Prochnow superbly

Alberta Watson is from Canada.

I mean why nobody comments about Scott Glenn's purple eyes. You might think somebody might. And then there's Dr. Theodore Cuza's (Ian M) extraordinary recovery to good health that nobody seems to notice until the last twenty minutes. No wonder the Third Reich lost World War II. They all have terrible eyesight!

The musical score seems to have been mixed up with a different film (Risky Business perhaps) and manages to totally blow away any atmosphere. Which is a shame, because the film struggles to grab any as it is.

The dialogue, when it does appear, ranges for provocative to outright toe cringing. And then there's the fact that half of the film seems dedicated to watching Scott Glenn cross the country side on a motorbike in a half hearted Great Escape rip-off.

But the premise is good. Perhaps even the basis of the Castle Wolfenstein series of games. Nazis, black arts, demons let out of their prison.... you get the idea. So much promise, piddled down the drain of 1980's art over substance.

Perhaps, in the future, some brave new director may remake this (as Michael Mann re-directed ‘L.A. Takedown' as his immortal classic ‘Heat') only include a few non-essential extras such as a coherent plot, a script, atmosphere and the odd surprise.

You can only hope.

This is surprisingly good movie from the 80's. Somehow the script was a little bit shallow. I was surprised by special effects that seemed very good for its time. Don't consider this movie as action genre. It's far from that. I consider it as fantasy/mystery/horror. I didn't read the book but this movie is really worth watching. Some of the questions in the end remained unanswered. Why is the keep cursed? What posses it? What is the creature from the keep - demon, devil or something else? What is the being acted by Scott Glenn that fought against the creature - some archangel or what? Maybe the answers are in the novel. One of the greatest moments in the movie is music that matches the atmosphere. Directing and acting were very good too.

I tried to like this strange movie. Looking more like a pantomime set rather than a film set, plus the T.Dream music that for me did not help but was intrusive and at times grated. There was a better movie in there somewhere, Maybe M.Mann's original cut? Sir Ian's accent was anything but Eastern European, more American than anything. I notice on his own site he says the director asked him to drop the Rumanian accent for a Chicago one, if true it sounds strange to say the least. The only actor who seemed believable to me was Jurgen Prochnow, Gabriel Byrne doing pretty much as every other actor doing the sadistic Nazi act does with the exception of the brilliant Christoph Waltz in Tarantino's 'Inglourious Basterds' I thought the monster quite good until 'it' opened it's mouth, it spoke with a better accent than Ian Mckellen. In my view this 'mish mash' was a missed opportunity.

In late 1941, a motorized German infantry unit holds a pass in the Carpathian Mountains by occupying a strange fortress that's "built backwards," as the captain observes (Jürgen Prochnow). When soldiers start mysteriously dying, it draws a ruthless Nazi commander into the fray (Gabriel Byrne), as well as a Hebrew professor and his daughter (Ian McKellen & Alberta Watson). A strange nomad is also attracted to the proceedings (Scott Glenn).

Based on the 1981 book of the same name, "The Keep" (1983) is a supernatural thriller set in WW2, one of director Michael Mann's early flicks before his great success with films like "The Last of the Mohicans" (1992). While this was a flop at the box office, it has since developed a cult following. It was no cheapo movie, costing a whopping $11 million at the time and hence has quality production values, especially for an early 80's horror flick. It's comparable to a late-era Hammer movie, just made on a huge budget and without Cushing or Lee.

There are elements of "Altered States" (1980), "The Formula" (1980), "The Seventh Sign" (1988) and "Howling V: The Rebirth" (1989) so, if you like those films, check it out (and, yes, I realize those last two came out 5-6 years later).

The production was troubled with Mann's original edit being 3.5 hours, which is well over TWICE as long as the version released to theaters (!). This has caused critics to denounce "The Keep" as a jaggedly-edited outlandish mess that attempts to be an art film, a horror flick and a WW2 movie without really succeeding at any. The film's peculiarity is augmented by a dream-like score by Tangerine Dream. Nevertheless, there's enough good here to entertain open-minded viewers. While there are obvious cut parts, the story isn't hard to fill-in the blanks.

There is a creature and it's easily the most intriguing part (in later scenes it sorta rips-off of Jack Kirby's Darkseid). Yet I found the characters played by Prochnow, Byrne and McKellen interesting too.

Scott Glenn's role would've been better if he was fleshed out more. He was the protagonist of the book, but his scenes were cut. What we are left with is an enigmatic traveler with glowing eyeballs and a magic stick who has no qualms about jumping into bed with a woman he barely knows (in defense of this sequence, he instinctively KNOWS her and vice versa to a degree).

The film runs 1 hour, 36 minutes, and was shot in Blaenau Ffestiniog & Llanberis in northwestern Wales, as well as England at Shepperton Studios, just west of London, and Kent (the concentration camp); with Spain standing in for Greece in one scene.

GRADE: B-

This movie's a mixed bag of horror goodies. On the one hand you have a great premise, a phenomenal ensemble cast with two strong leads (in the form of Byrne and Prochnow) of two distinct and contrasting personalities. The script also does not shirk from displaying the worst of humanity, personified by the SS.

None of which saves this film from a below-standard review. The crux of the problem is not the fact that it hasn't aged well - though the 2005 viewer will have to work hard to see past the rope effects, discordant music (supplied by Tangerine Dream - nice) and distinctly non-erotic sex scene - but rather the fact that the whole film feels unfinished. We do not find out where the monster comes from, nor where his nemesis fits into the picture, while the female lead's character is simply baffling in her stoicism. Several poorly edited shots also jar the viewer out of the experience, making the entire affair seem amateurish and sloppy.

The acting is patchy, with the cast straight-jacketed by an awkward script which offers some of the stronger players a few chances to shine (except Glenn, who is made to struggle along in an appalling whisper) but despite the opportunities the situation affords, this never rises above the mediocre.

All in all, this film is hard work, but worthwhile if you look at what was achieved with an obviously limited budget. Just don't expect a horror film in keeping with Mann's later abilities.