{"id":8523,"date":"2024-11-18T23:46:24","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T04:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8523"},"modified":"2024-11-18T23:46:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T04:46:24","slug":"the-keep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/18\/the-keep\/","title":{"rendered":"The Keep"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Keep <\/strong>(1983)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, graphic violence, strong sexual content and nudity, attempted rape)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Michael Mann\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Mann\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Tangerine Dream\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Alex Thomson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 16, 1983 (US)\u00a0 \u00a0Cast: Scott Glenn, Jurgen Prochnow, Alberta Watson, Ian McKellen, Gabriel Byrne, Robert Prosky, William Morgan Sheppard, Bruce Payne.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $3.6M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong>\u00a0*** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Keep<\/strong> was a critical and commercial failure upon its release. The author of the novel on which it\u2019s based F. Paul Wilson hates it. I love it! It’s one of the most original horror movies I’ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The year is 1941. The German army has arrived in a small Romanian village to take control of the Dinu Mountain Pass located in the Carpathian Alps. In the village lies a large citadel, a deserted castle that has been unoccupied by humans for many years. The caretaker of “The Keep” informs Captain Klaus Woermann (Prochnow, Das Boot) that he and his men shouldn’t stay there because there is an evil presence. It isn’t designed to keep anything out, but rather to keep something trapped inside. Some of the soldiers, believing that the crosses adorning the walls are made of silver (they\u2019re actually nickel), pry one off and unleash a malevolent entity, one that sucks the life force from its victims.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One day, sadistic Major Kaempffer (Byrne, The Usual Suspects) arrives and assumes control of the village. He immediately executes three random villagers and announces more will follow if any more German soldiers die. The local priest Father Mihai Fonescu (Prosky, Thief) tells the Major about the evil presence in the castle and urges him to bring in an expert to help them better understand what they\u2019re dealing with. He arranges for Jewish historian Dr. Cuza (McKellen, the LOTR trilogy) and his daughter Eva (Watson, The Soldier) to be brought to the castle from a death camp.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When we first encounter the entity, he is enveloped in a cloud of smoke. It takes a little while before we get a really good look at his physical appearance. Okay, so the entity resembles an actor in a rubber costume, but it makes no difference, this thing is scary. He’s a persuasive creature who manages to convince Cuza, an educated man, to help him with his plan to destroy the world. He tells Cuza he will be able to destroy the entire Nazi army if he’s freed from his prison.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Meanwhile, there’s a power struggle between the Captain and the Major. Woermann knows that an evil presence is responsible for the brutal murders of the German troops while Kaempffer steadfastly believes it’s partisan activity that he can easily put a stop to.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Nazis aren\u2019t the only one interested in the power that lies within the castle. A stranger (Glenn, Urban Cowboy), sensing the entity\u2019s awakening, starts making his way to the village. He has eyes that glow and powers similar to the Force. He carries with him a mysterious case. What is his connection to the entity?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Keep<\/strong> has been described as incoherent and incomprehensible, but I don’t agree with that assessment. Quite the opposite, I think it\u2019s absolutely brilliant. The visuals are positively stunning. The cinematography by Alex Thomson is nothing short of amazing. The mere act of looking at Michael Mann\u2019s film is an incredible experience. The director of Thief and Manhunter has a real eye for visuals that\u2019s augmented by a dynamite electronic score by Tangerine Dream. Whenever I see their name in the credits, I know to expect musical greatness.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Keep<\/strong> is a case of style over substance with its non-complex plot and characters and lack of exposition- e.g. the connection between the entity and the stranger is never adequately explained. A lot of what occurs in The Keep<\/strong> has to be taken at face value without rational explanation. Fortunately, I\u2019m one of those people who can do that. Some things in life can\u2019t be explained, especially the supernatural. You either accept it or you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The performances in The Keep<\/strong> are pretty good. Byrne is the very personification of human evil even if his performance borders on camp at times. McKellen is great as Cuza, a good man torn between obligation to the entity and mankind. The late Watson, whose character has a quick but passionate sexual encounter with Glenn\u2019s stranger, is a real find. I always felt the Canadian actress had superstar potential. It helps that she was easy on the eyes. Prochnow is good as the German soldier with a conscience. He’s just following orders and doesn’t want to see anybody killed for no reason; it’s only natural he’s going to clash with the brutal major.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I will concede The Keep<\/strong> moves a bit slowly, but is there any law that says that all films have to move at a breakneck speed? It takes its time to build up to something and it\u2019s worth the wait. I can understand why audiences weren’t too interested in The Keep<\/strong>. They went in expecting mainstream and got artistic instead. I\u2019ll concede it doesn\u2019t always make sense, but it\u2019s not the fault of the filmmaker. Blame the suits at Paramount who wouldn\u2019t accept Mann\u2019s original 210-minute cut. They made him cut it down to two hours; after which, they edited it down to 96 minutes against his wishes. I\u2019d love to get a look at Mann\u2019s original vision but I doubt that will ever happen. The theatrical version didn\u2019t even get a DVD\/Blu-Ray release until this year (January 2020) and only in Australia. In any event, I love The Keep<\/strong>. It\u2019s not perfect but it\u2019s different. That counts for a lot.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Keep (1983)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, graphic violence, strong sexual content and nudity, attempted rape)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Michael Mann\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Mann\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Tangerine Dream\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Alex Thomson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 16, 1983 (US)\u00a0 \u00a0Cast: Scott Glenn, Jurgen Prochnow, Alberta Watson, Ian McKellen, Gabriel Byrne, Robert Prosky, William Morgan Sheppard, Bruce Payne.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8783,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hidden-treasures","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-Keep-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8523"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8785,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8523\/revisions\/8785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}