THE KEEP (1983) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

the keep (1983) movie

Genre              |   Supernatural Thriller

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   96 minutes

Released         |   16 December 1983 

cast

Scott Glenn ... Glaeken
Alberta Watson ... Eva Cuza
Jürgen Prochnow ... Woermann
Robert Prosky ... Father Fonescu
Gabriel Byrne ... Kaempffer
Ian McKellen ... Dr. Theodore Cuza
William Morgan Sheppard ... Alexandru (as Morgan Sheppard)

director

Michael Mann

writer

​F. Paul Wilson ... (novel)
 
Michael Mann ... (screenplay)

cinematographer

​Alex Thomson ... director of photography

music

Tangerine Dream

film editor

Dov Hoenig
Tony Palmer ... (uncredited)

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​​​​​ 4,218,594 

Australia                 $​​​​​ not available

North America       $​​​​​​​​ 4,218,594​​

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movie minutiae

​The writer of the original novel, F. Paul Wilson, was so unimpressed by Michael Mann's adaptation of his work, that he wrote a short story called "Cuts", in which a writer puts a voodoo curse on a director, who has mangled his work.

​​In the film's narrative, the "Keep" is to a massive uninhabited castle, citadel, or fortress located at the "Dinu Pass" in the Carpathian Alps in Transylvania, Romania. In the film, the interiors of the "Keep" are said to contain 108 T-shaped icons made of nickel. According to Author F. Paul Wilson, both elements of his story are fictitious: No building like "The Keep" ever existed, and no "Dinu Pass" can be found in Romania.

In a 1983 interview, Michael Mann referred to psychologist Dr. Bruno Bettelheim's "The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales" (first published in 1976) as an inspiration for his movie. Mann also said about his film, that "...it's very much a magical, dream-like, fairy-tale reality."

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related movies

LEGEND
(1986)

THE KEEP (1983) MOVIE IMAGES

Images

Posters

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Posters

THE KEEP (1983) STORY SYNOPSIS

​A German troop detachment is sent to a village high in the mountains of Romania where it is rumoured an ancient resides. One by one, soldiers are killed. Suspecting local villagers, a Nazi SS officer is sent to investigate. Realising there is more to the deaths than can be rationally explained, the Germans turn to a local Jewish historian to uncover the secret of the mountain citadel. Elsewhere, on a Greek island, a mysterious man becomes aware of the ancient evil stirring in the Romanian mountains. Sensing that he has little time, the stranger heads to The Keep as fast as he can...

THE KEEP (1983) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 16 December 2017

​​Pop Movee Rating

Before Michael Mann became something of an Action/Crime specialist film hyphenate, his resume suggests that he struggled to find a genre that allowed his artistic vision to be shown through his work. The result is certainly a mixed bag of films that demonstrate the transition from successful television producer to feature filmmaker is not as smooth a journey for some as it it is for others. Among Mann’s early 1980s work is his adaptation of the F. Paul Wilson 1981 novel THE KEEP. Wilson’s novel is a grab-bag of Fantasy and Horror set during World War II and tells the story of Hitler’s elite trooper regiment sent in search of an ancient evil that will help the Fuehrer win the war!

THE KEEP is recommended by websites specialising in the Horror genre and many reviewers within that fan community have high regard for the film...

Unfortunately, that enthusiasm will be lost on the broader audience, as the film feels like a pastiche of scenes that lack narrative coherence. The film is not helped by the wildly varying performances of the cast. While many of the actors who appear in THE KEEP have gone on to have outstanding careers, this film did little to affirm anyone’s reputation.

Ian McKellen, Gabriel Byrne and Scott Glenn are tremendous actors, but it’s hard to fathom what the fuck they were thinking when they were delivering their lines in this film. Ian McKellen, in particular, provides no clues to the truly wonderful screen actor he has become, as he shouts and bellows in a manner that would make Brian Blessed blush.

THE KEEP also suffers from poor film and sound editing. The edit has all the hallmarks of a studio hack-job once the front office has realised the Director is not going to deliver a Multiplex suitable cut of the film.

The movie jumps from scene-to-scene, sometimes quite inexplicably, making it a challenge for the viewer to follow what is already a confusing story. This disjointed effect reaches its tipping point in the Third Act when Scott Glenn’s character finally arrives at The Keep. Despite cut-always to him throughout the movie, the viewer never really works out who the fuck he is or what the fuck he's doing, except for the occasional, other-worldly fluorescent eyes that he turns in and off from time-to-time. When he shows up at The Keep in person, no one’s any the wiser as to his presence except that he has some weird-ass connection to The Keep and can prevent its evil from being released!

As far as the film's sound goes, it’s simply terrible.

For a start, THE KEEP has a Tangerine Dream score. That's not a bad thing, as the group delivered some wonderful film music in the Eighties. It's the suitability of their music to the visual material that is disconsonant...

THE KEEP was desperately in need of a Jerry Goldsmith orchestral score somewhere between ALIEN (1979) and THE OMEN. Instead, the film gets an electronic score that feels completely at odds with the foreboding feel of the setting and the evil that resides within it.

It's always dangerous to romanticise the past, especially when it comes to movies. What felt frightening in 1983, with the passage of time, may be nearly as terrifying to audiences in the present. How THE KEEP maintains a place on ‘Best Of’ lists is a mystery. Apart from the central premise, the film's execution is lacking in key areas; narrative and performance foremost among them. Fortunately, Michael Mann found a genre that was suited to his film-making ambition and he delivered one of the truly great Crime film's in 1994 with HEAT, starring Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro.

THE KEEP (1983) USEFUL LINKS

The Keep (film) - Wikipedia
​The Keep (1983) - IMDb​
​The Keep (1983) - Rotten Tomatoes

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