Keep, The (1983)

Keep, The (1983)

8/10

Synopsis: Good battles evil while Nazis get caught in the crossfire.

Directed by Michael Mann (Heat, Miami Vice)

Based on F. Paul Wilson's Book

Our characters-

Glaken Trismegestus- Scott Glenn (Silence of the Lambs, The Right Stuff)

Eva Cuza- Alberta Watson (lots of TV shows and movies)

Captain Klaus Woermann- Jurgen Prochnow (Dune, In the Mouth of Madness, House of the Dead)

Father Mihail Fonescu- Robert Prosky (Christine, Gremlins 2)

Major Kaempffer- Gabriel Byrne (Gothic, End of Days)

Dr. Theordore Cuza- Ian McKellen (I'm not even going to bother)

I have heard that the movie takes some liberties with the story compared to the book (nothing new there). I have not read the book, so I will not be able to compare and contrast; this review will be based on the movie only.

The film starts off with a Nazi squad rolling into a Romanian mountain town that happens to have an ancient Keep. The goal for Captain Klaus, leader of the Nazi group, is to hold this particular mountain pass. (Quick side note: two Nazis are talking about how they would rather be on the front lines fighting Russia. One says, "We'll have taken Moscow before we even get there." Oops!) Since the town includes about 8 total buildings, the Nazis take up residence in the Keep, against the warnings of the Keep's caretaker. As a bit of foreshadowing, the caretaker tells the Capt. that the crosses imbedded in the walls are only nickel, not silver as the grunts think.

Of course, that night the night guards see one of the crosses glowing in the dark. "See, it IS silver!" I know physics was a little known subject back in the 1940s, but has anyone ever seen silver that glows in the dark? Maybe if you amped it up with trillions of REM-equivalent gamma rays, but I digress.

So the greedy guards pull out the cross and find a "secret" passage that leads to one really huge cavern inside the Keep. There is no way that cavern could be contained within the Keep, even if part of it was below the Keep; we're talking Lovecraftian dimensional wackiness here. The first guy goes looking, and only the bottom half returns. The Second guard is reduced to bits a la 'Raiders of the Ark' style. All the other Nazis hear the screaming and go running around shooting their rifles into the air. No, I do not know why they do that.

We get a quick scene of Glaken with glowing eyes as the thing from the cavern gets released. Cut to a few days later, and a bigger and more well armed Nazi squad shows up, led by the Major. The Major quickly guns down two of the villagers and takes five more hostage against more partisan attacks.

To help decipher the odd, newly inscribed runes inside the Keep, the major sends for an old, ailing Jewish professor. The Prof, being in a work camp, brings along his daughter. It turns out that the runes are a warning in a very ancient Romanian dialect. Glaken finally shows up.

There is still roughly 40 minutes left in the film, where the pace and action really pick up. If you want to spoil the movie, I have a link to my notes at the end of the review.

The video is a bit soft and grainy, probably due to the 1980s film stock and/or the source material (there has been no DVD release). Even with that caveat, the scenery and sets were gorgeous. I could not tell if the outdoor shots were pure location shots or if any matting was done. However, the entire look of the Keep, inside and out, was ridiculously awesome. The place just screamed "Lovecraft!" at me. The cinematography was very nice; there was a consistent gloomy and gritty look to it, even outdoors.

The sound levels were a bit iffy- a large range from soft dialogue, to background noises, to explosively loud sound FX. The music, provided by Tangerine Dream, had a constant spooky, synth feel, though less synth-y than most 1980's horror movies soundtracks. The makeup was great all around, from Ian McKellen's aging to the demon itself. The visual FX were decent, about on par for the early 1980s.

The Keep starts off at a rather slow pace, but it doesn't feel that way as the exposition acts like an onion; there is always something else going on the further you dig into the story. There is the obvious good vs. evil thread going on, but it is interesting to see how the Captain and Major disagree on everything, asking us how do we define evil? The Captain is a Nazi, so he must be evil, but he fights for the villagers at his own risk, so is he a good guy after all? The Prof faces a similar question, which I will not reveal here. There is a nice contrast in religions. You have the Catholic priest and his trappings counterpointed with the more ancient symbolism of the Keep.

A very fine movie. Good acting, great setting, nice soundtrack, just a bit off on the sound. OK FX, but very good makeup. I have to take some points off for the ending and some dubious character decisions, but overall a solid recommendation.

8/10

(See my notes for this film)