Kingdom Cronos - The Keep Movie Review

The Keep

1983

The Keep is a movie that few remember, and those that do are rather evenly split on what to think of it. To sum it up, it’s a love it or hate it movie. Those who hate it tend to hold such resentment for the single reason that the movie runs uneven.

And the haters are indeed correct about that! But they are totally wrong in who to blame for the theatrical hatchet job most of us are familiar with. The Keep suffers from bar-none the absolute worst editing job I’ve ever seen. But I happen to know just HOW bad the edit job actually is largely due to some correspondence I actually had with F. Paul Wilson back when I was a much younger writer and big fan of his work, especially the "Adversary Series" of which The Keep is a part of

Some elaboration is essential in order to view this film with an open mind…

Mann actually did shoot a plethora of scenes that seemed to be left out from the book! There still are some differences, but there's no huge gaping holes in the story if you are lucky enough to see the "Director's Cut."! Thanks to the 'net, the existence of this cut has been verified on a more public level recently by members of the crew including Graham Attwood who served as the shooting photographer, and who has released several key stills from cut scenes which prove that Mann had filmed the key elements from the book. It was Paramount to blame for the atrocious final cut which make the movie confusing and appear to inanely jump from scene to scene! Unfortunately Paramount is also to blame for ignoring a decent interest for a release ofthe “Director’s Cut” of this movie. Typical Paramount! Always behind the times on DVD releases. The theatrical cut of the film itself is hard to find now as is since it has gone OOP. However if you look long and hard… You just might be able to find a nice copy of one of the versions, even in widescreen nonetheless! Regardles if your able to find either version of the film or not. I highly suggest that you also check out the excellent book by F. Paul Wilson. They do seem to go hand in hand, despite which version of the film you wish to compare it to.

So with that lengthy yet essential bit out of the way… Let’s move on to the review!

The movie not only features a near all star cast, but it is also visually impressive… Often considered by many to be an art house flick. A great feat considering the meager budget of six million bucks! It is set in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania during the German occupation in WWII. The opening scene sets the mood with a haunting soundtrack performed by Tangerine Dream as a convoy of German vehicles makes it’s way up a rocky pass covered by a veil of gloomy haze. They come to a small and archaic village and decide to set up camp within an archaic keep despite the warnings from the villagers which serves to add some suspense driven backstory concerning the mysterious Keep.

"Don't bogart that joint, man!"

The Keep is a cool looking set! The walls are lined with lots of Lovecraftian looking text and ancient crosses and soldiers observe that the Keep is designed to keep something in and not out. We also learn that this convoy of German soldiers are made up of both regular soldiers and nazis. It's interesting to watch how the soldiers operate more with a code of honor which the nazistoally lack, and this leads to some interesting characterization points notably and most strongly between Captain Klaus (Jurgen Prochnow) and his Nazi superior Major Kaempffer (A young and irish Gabriel Byrne). With that said... It's some regular joe German soldiers that get greedy instead os smart and notice that one of the crosses is made from silver (And is glowing), and not nickel like all the rest. They attempt to pry it off, but it actually dislodges the large block it's attached to, and once yanked free from the wall, they get greedier thinking there's more treasure behind the wall. But upon some more exploring... Surprise! Surprise! They unleash a hungry entity that we'll later learn calls itself Molasar!

"Enough with the Darkseid references mmmkay!?!"

Following a nice gruesome scene, we are then transported to a man named Glaeken (Scott Glenn) awakening in a far away fishing village. You immediately know that he's somehow connected to the release of Molasar, for he seems to pack well for his trip to the Carpathians.

Meanwhile back at the Keep... More unexplained murders are happening and the Germans begin to kill the villagers thinking one of them is responsible. Strange writings made with blood have also been appearing on the walls in the same undecipherable Lovecraftian text , and they learn from one of the villagers that a jewish professor and his assistant daughter who are holed up in one of their concentration camps may be the only ones able to decipher the cryptic messages. So enter into the picture Dr Theodroe (Ian Mckellen)who is confined to a wheelchair and seems to have a terminal cough, and his lovely daughter Eva (Alberta Watson).

"Your faith in the darkside of the force is misplaced, young Vader!"

Glaeken arrives into town and stirs up a bit of interest when the villagers start going nuts. Despite this though he eventually beds Eva for the movie's sole showing of skin. Back at the Keep Dr Cuza is finally approached by Molasar whose taken an interest in the hate Cuza has for the Nazis. Molasar claims that the Jews are his people and that he'll exact vengeance upon the nazis all the way up to the Fueher himself! But initially claims that he first he must regenerate himself. Before leaving to search for more victims, Molasar gives him a healing touch which slowly but surely regenerates Dr Cuza to the point of looking much younger and even being able to walk again.

The Germans at this point are falling apart and are infighting amongst themselves. Glaeken begins to reveal his purpose of arriving at the Keep. And Molasar is ready to make his move against the Third Reich but needs the help of Dr Cuza... Maybe that healing wasn't just a compassionate moment afterall? And just what is the unearthly connection between Glaeken and Molaser all about?

"This shit is way cooler than Knott's Scary Farm!"

But you'll have to see the flick to find out!

A decent amount of creative gore FX but nothing overwhelming. Moody atmosphere and visuals with a soundtrack by Tangerine Dream provide a convincing dreamlike effect to this one! I actually strongly prefer Mann's take on what Glaeken and Molasar are instead of the vampire theme in the book! The book is still considerably more detailed than either version of the film, at one point actually accounting for about a month's worth of Nazi occupation at The Keep which sells the breakdown of order between the troops much more convincingly... But hey, this is a movie, and they weren't doing 3 1/2 hour film adaptions back when this one was done! Still as mentioned, the Directors Cut bridges the "neccesary" gaps from the book nicely.

However, I'm going to have to base the published rating of this one on it's only commercially available incarnation for now since that's the one 99.9% of you will unfortunately probably ever see, which is the infamous Theatrical cut. And due soley to the cuts Paramount made which DO leave the film with gaping story holes which will confuse and iritate anyone who has never read the book (Much akin to the theatrical release of Lynch's DUNE), I have to give this one only 2.5 skulls. The Directors Cut gets an easy 3.5 though!

If your looking for something visually impressive for the period, with a nice dark and gothic backdrop with Lovecraftian influences (F. Paul Wilson is big on Lovecraft!), you might want to trouble yourself to find this one even in it's theatrical cut.

	The Keep 1983 The Keep is a movie that few remember, and those that do are rather evenly split on what to think of it. To sum it up, it’s a love it or hate it movie. Those who hate it tend to hold such resentment for the single reason that the movie runs uneven. And the haters are indeed correct about that! But they are totally wrong in who to blame for the theatrical hatchet job most of us are familiar with. The Keep suffers from bar-none the absolute worst editing job I’ve ever seen. But I happen to know just HOW bad the edit job actually is largely due to some correspondence I actually had with F. Paul Wilson back when I was a much younger writer and big fan of his work, especially the "Adversary Series" of which The Keep is a part of Some elaboration is essential in order to view this film with an open mind… Mann actually did shoot a plethora of scenes that seemed to be left out from the book! There still are some differences, but there's no huge gaping holes in the story if you are lucky enough to see the "Director's Cut."! Thanks to the 'net, the existence of this cut has been verified on a more public level recently by members of the crew including Graham Attwood who served as the shooting photographer, and who has released several key stills from cut scenes which prove that Mann had filmed the key elements from the book. It was Paramount to blame for the atrocious final cut which make the movie confusing and appear to inanely jump from scene to scene! Unfortunately Paramount is also to blame for ignoring a decent interest for a release ofthe “Director’s Cut” of this movie. Typical Paramount! Always behind the times on DVD releases. The theatrical cut of the film itself is hard to find now as is since it has gone OOP. However if you look long and hard… You just might be able to find a nice copy of one of the versions, even in widescreen nonetheless! Regardles if your able to find either version of the film or not. I highly suggest that you also check out the excellent book by F. Paul Wilson. They do seem to go hand in hand, despite which version of the film you wish to compare it to. So with that lengthy yet essential bit out of the way… Let’s move on to the review! The movie not only features a near all star cast, but it is also visually impressive… Often considered by many to be an art house flick. A great feat considering the meager budget of six million bucks! It is set in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania during the German occupation in WWII. The opening scene sets the mood with a haunting soundtrack performed by Tangerine Dream as a convoy of German vehicles makes it’s way up a rocky pass covered by a veil of gloomy haze. They come to a small and archaic village and decide to set up camp within an archaic keep despite the warnings from the villagers which serves to add some suspense driven backstory concerning the mysterious Keep. "Don't bogart that joint, man!" The Keep is a cool looking set! The walls are lined with lots of Lovecraftian looking text and ancient crosses and soldiers observe that the Keep is designed to keep something in and not out. We also learn that this convoy of German soldiers are made up of both regular soldiers and nazis. It's interesting to watch how the soldiers operate more with a code of honor which the nazistoally lack, and this leads to some interesting characterization points notably and most strongly between Captain Klaus (Jurgen Prochnow) and his Nazi superior Major Kaempffer (A young and irish Gabriel Byrne). With that said... It's some regular joe German soldiers that get greedy instead os smart and notice that one of the crosses is made from silver (And is glowing), and not nickel like all the rest. They attempt to pry it off, but it actually dislodges the large block it's attached to, and once yanked free from the wall, they get greedier thinking there's more treasure behind the wall. But upon some more exploring... Surprise! Surprise! They unleash a hungry entity that we'll later learn calls itself Molasar! "Enough with the Darkseid references mmmkay!?!" Following a nice gruesome scene, we are then transported to a man named Glaeken (Scott Glenn) awakening in a far away fishing village. You immediately know that he's somehow connected to the release of Molasar, for he seems to pack well for his trip to the Carpathians. Meanwhile back at the Keep... More unexplained murders are happening and the Germans begin to kill the villagers thinking one of them is responsible. Strange writings made with blood have also been appearing on the walls in the same undecipherable Lovecraftian text , and they learn from one of the villagers that a jewish professor and his assistant daughter who are holed up in one of their concentration camps may be the only ones able to decipher the cryptic messages. So enter into the picture Dr Theodroe (Ian Mckellen)who is confined to a wheelchair and seems to have a terminal cough, and his lovely daughter Eva (Alberta Watson). "Your faith in the darkside of the force is misplaced, young Vader!" Glaeken arrives into town and stirs up a bit of interest when the villagers start going nuts. Despite this though he eventually beds Eva for the movie's sole showing of skin. Back at the Keep Dr Cuza is finally approached by Molasar whose taken an interest in the hate Cuza has for the Nazis. Molasar claims that the Jews are his people and that he'll exact vengeance upon the nazis all the way up to the Fueher himself! But initially claims that he first he must regenerate himself. Before leaving to search for more victims, Molasar gives him a healing touch which slowly but surely regenerates Dr Cuza to the point of looking much younger and even being able to walk again. The Germans at this point are falling apart and are infighting amongst themselves. Glaeken begins to reveal his purpose of arriving at the Keep. And Molasar is ready to make his move against the Third Reich but needs the help of Dr Cuza... Maybe that healing wasn't just a compassionate moment afterall? And just what is the unearthly connection between Glaeken and Molaser all about? "This shit is way cooler than Knott's Scary Farm!" But you'll have to see the flick to find out! A decent amount of creative gore FX but nothing overwhelming. Moody atmosphere and visuals with a soundtrack by Tangerine Dream provide a convincing dreamlike effect to this one! I actually strongly prefer Mann's take on what Glaeken and Molasar are instead of the vampire theme in the book! The book is still considerably more detailed than either version of the film, at one point actually accounting for about a month's worth of Nazi occupation at The Keep which sells the breakdown of order between the troops much more convincingly... But hey, this is a movie, and they weren't doing 3 1/2 hour film adaptions back when this one was done! Still as mentioned, the Directors Cut bridges the "neccesary" gaps from the book nicely. However, I'm going to have to base the published rating of this one on it's only commercially available incarnation for now since that's the one 99.9% of you will unfortunately probably ever see, which is the infamous Theatrical cut. And due soley to the cuts Paramount made which DO leave the film with gaping story holes which will confuse and iritate anyone who has never read the book (Much akin to the theatrical release of Lynch's DUNE), I have to give this one only 2.5 skulls. The Directors Cut gets an easy 3.5 though! If your looking for something visually impressive for the period, with a nice dark and gothic backdrop with Lovecraftian influences (F. Paul Wilson is big on Lovecraft!), you might want to trouble yourself to find this one even in it's theatrical cut.
DIRECTOR Michael Mann
WRITER Michael Mann
CAST Scott Glenn, Alberta Watson, Jurgen Prochnow, Ian McKellen, Gabriel Byrne.
GORE
SKIN
MOVIE