The Keep (1983)

In 7 words or less: Michael Mann's weird fantasy horror film!?

What's it all About? It's WWII and a bunch of Nazis get sent to guard some weird citadel in Romania called 'The Keep'. A couple of German soldiers try to steal some strange silvery crosses from inside the keep and accidentally wake up some serious evil. The local villagers seem petrified of the place and when Nazi soldiers start mysteriously getting murdered the townsfolk get the blame. Typical Nazis.

Best bits? The scene where the two German soldiers are trying to steal the cross is awesome! Out of nowhere the film totally changes direction; we're hit with hard 80s synths and a truck load of dry ice! If you have the time you should check it out below.



The weird thing that those guys wake up is apparently called Molasar, he takes on various forms throughout the movie, starting out as just smoke (exactly like LOST) but as he claims more victims he takes on a more human based form. For 1983 this thing looks amazing and still gave me a good scare in 2012.

The Tangerine Dream soundtrack is totally amazing! Although, apparently one of the reasons The Keep hasn't had a DVD release is down to those Tangerines Dreamers being involved in a copyrights debacle with the studio. I don't think Paramount are too bothered about The Keeps lack of DVD release to be honest. 

Did it make you think thoughts? Michael Mann's second picture is no B movie, it's really well made and as you'd expect looks extremely dynamic and interesting. Knowing the sort of director he is now and the films he's accustomed to making, looking back, The Keep really stands out as bizarre deviation from everything else he's ever made or been associated with. It wasn't successful and it's probably no coincidence that he's never felt the need to return to the fantasy horror genre!

I'm not surprised that this movie has carved a small, loyal following out there in cyber world, it smacks of a young artistic director with his first proper budget going wild with lights, creature effects and whacky camera angles. It's all great fun and as with all fantasy horror films goes completely bonkers three quarters of the way in! Confusing as hell; just lights and fog for the most part. Lol, it's a funny genre.

Would you watch it again? For sure! I hope it gets a blu ray release one day, I won't hold my breath though.

Rating (out of 100%): 69% Surprised it was this good actually. I don't know why I thought it wasn't going to be a proper film? In places it's bloody amazing, although it does descend into conventional lunacy towards the end. Worth checking out, but we're all glad Mann went on to better things.