La forteresse noire

A few of a detachment of German Army soldiers are mysteriously murdered in a Romanian citadel - 1942. The SS arrives to investigate and put a stop to the killings. However, there is an evil force at work within the Keep which will do anything to escape.

The Keep is a high concept yarn. The initial find set up and shooting of the villagers are stand out moments. The visuals and effects are stylistic, strong lighting, wind machines, optical layers are very much of there day. The special make-up has a startling 'cool' look to it, the 'Molasar' and Trismegestus designs are particularly well executed. Notably are the cast which includes the likes of Gabriel Byrne and Robert Prosky. Jürgen Prochnow is on fine form as Captain Klaus Woermann, Scott Glenn is intense and Ian McKellen is memorable as Dr. Theodore Cuza. The sets are well crafted, the on location shoot adds credence to the WWII setting and costumes add to the believability.

Nevertheless, rather than being intriguing with a slow pace The Keep plods along without building any real tension or suspense. The editing is a little jumbled, it appears to be a mixture of good and bad takes leaving it somewhat disjointed especially in the final reel, it may have benefited from only using those 'good' takes with a shorter running time. Tangerine Dream's score is of its time but doesn't compliment the scenes, it's highly intrusive and takes away much of the atmosphere, subtlety and eeriness.

Even with director Michael Mann at the helm and given the excellent story based on F. Paul Wilson's novel and Mann's adequate screenplay it never gels together. It's not sure whether it wants to be an art house, MTV video piece or gritty supernatural. Should Mann had attempted this recently he may have been able to fuse it together satisfyingly. I suppose retrospect is a fine thing. Curiously, Mann's workprint ran for 3 hours, after the studio saw what he had they wanted it cut to no longer than 90 minutes and assigned it second-level advertising. Mann has since distanced himself from the film.

Through all its disjointedness The Keep is an interesting film with a strong mythical good versus evil theme that plays on old religious fables. Molasar (Michael Carter) is the most menacing evil entity/being ever committed to celluloid and it's a shame that this has fallen into obscurity robbing the character and The Keep of even cult status.

A group of German soldiers led by Captain Klaus Woermann are sent to take guard at a Keep near a Romanian pass. One of the soldiers believes that a cross-embedded in the wall is made of silver and digs it out. Only to release an evil presence, known as Molasar. It knocks off a couple of soldiers every night. Sturmbahnfuhrer Kaempffer and his SS patrol arrive in town to stop the problem. They believe it's simply partisan activity, but they soon find out its far from it. So they get the help of a Jewish man, Dr Theodore Cuza (along with his daughter Eva) who knows a bit about this Keep. Meanwhile, a mysterious man, Glaeken Trismegatus is on his way to stop this evil.

Wow! But huh? Yeah, after spending a long time trying to see this hybrid movie. I finally got the chance and it was a very flawed, but reasonable effort by director / writer Michael Mann. I remember reading the quite interesting and extremely unique premise and being totally compelled by the idea of it. I guess not reading F. Paul Wilson's novel is a bittersweet thing, as I came in with very little expectations, but on the on other hand I was left clueless about certain disjointed sub- plots. Anyhow It's Mann's vision we got. The material is terribly mangled, jadedly rushed and comes across as pure pulp. However it's Mann's surreal direction, Alex Thomson's arresting photography and the moody electronic music score by Tangerine Dream that clicks in this atmospheric combination of fantasy, war and horror.

Sure, there was interference by the studio in the final product (with a a lot of scenes hitting the cutting room floor), but Mann seemed more preoccupied with his visuals than with the plot and characters. They became nothing more than forgettable background features. The storyline was all over the ship with forced details (like the creation of evil entity) and a script riddled with confusing holes. There's an odd assortment of performances. Those who stood out were the humane German captain played by Jurgen Prochnow and Gabriel Byrne as the tyrant SS officer. Alberta Watson as Eva felt awkward and Ian McKellen was fine. However Glenn Scott looked as if he was somewhere else in a very laboured role as Glaeken Trismegatus. An intriguing character that had VERY little to do and was hard to understand.

Visually there are plenty of potently dreamy images that spontaneously pop up. There's sharp craftsmanship in depicting certain sequences that just stick in your mind. Like when Byrne's character encounters Molasar. Worked into this is a very effective score that works the emotions thoroughly and creates a very out-of-this-world vibe. What captures this layout beautifully is Thomson's photography. His always in the right spot to get that impressive shot and original angle that just lingers on screen. The special effects is a big (if over-extended) light show that has style and the monster design can look a bit rubbery, but eventually the monster design by Nick Maley does come off. Mann knows how to stage a visually powerful scene, but if your looking for suspense. There are very few build-ups and little scares at all. The pace is slow, but the eerie setting holds up tightly and has a huge impact in the overall feel.

It isn't perfect, but it's a really unusual and hypnotic good vs. evil opus by Mann.

The Keep is weird. It has extraordinary visuals and some powerful sequences, but a bit too much of the action is tricky to follow because the scripting is muddled and some of the dialogue is delivered in an inexpressive and unclear manner. The film is based on a book by F. Paul Wilson, which is one of my all-time favourite novels.

The action revolves around a forbidding Romanian fortress set in a hillside. It is occupied by German soldiers during WWII, but the soldiers are foolish enough to disturb some of the glowing crosses embedded into the walls. From within the keep, an ancient and powerful evil force is unleashed, and only a mysterious drifter called Glaeken (Scott Glenn) knows what it is and how to destroy it.

The scene in which the evil is released is brilliant. Two soldiers venture into the inner depths of the keep, and one is mutilated by the unseen power. Another terrifc scene involves old cripple Ian McKellen being given a new lease of youth by the evil force. There's also a beautiful and erotic love scene between Glenn and Alberta Watson. Other aspects of the film aren't so good. As mentioned, there's a lack of clarity in the story telling. Also, the final conflict between Glenn and the evil force is hasty and under-developed. The pace of the film suffers from a slow and rather uninspiring opening half-hour. However, genreally speaking, The Keep is worth watching, especially if you're a fan of the book.

This movie begins with a German army squad traveling through the Carpathian Mountains in Romania to secure the Dinu Mountain Pass during the first days of Operation Barbarossa during World War II. Commanding this squad is "Captain Klaus Woermann" (Jurgen Prochnow) who is both competent and combat experienced. Upon arrival at a small Romanian village near an abandoned citadel known as "The Keep" he decides to set up operations. What he doesn't know is that rather than being built to keep intruders out, "The Keep" was built to keep something--in. That being the case, it isn't too long before German soldiers are being killed by some mysterious entity despite the best efforts of Captain Woermann. Not long after he requests a relocation point, a special SS unit arrives under the command of "SD Sturmbannfuhrer Eric KKaempffer" (Gabriel Byrne) who takes command of the area and decides to execute villagers as a way of containing what he believes is partisan activity. But there is no partisan activity. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was an interesting movie which made great use of smoke and music to create a surreal atmosphere. Unfortunately, the director (Michael Mann) went too far with these stylistic enhancements which crowded out everything else. Along with that the special effects for the "entity" were clearly second-rate and that didn't help either. In short, the film had a good plot but lacked the necessary time to really develop which in turn limited the overall effect. Accordingly, I rate this movie as about average.

The Keep is an absurdly ambitious film in which the visual elements are so epic and marvelous that it makes the plot and character development feel like an amateurish joke in comparison. Though everyone gives competent acting performances, the story is far too simple, skeletal, and formulaic to allow them any real depth. Of course, it is widely known that the greatest reason why the movie likely feels this way is because director Michael Mann intended for it to be a 3 1/2 hour movie, while the producers (Paramount) cut it down to an hour and a half against his wishes - I do feel that this lengthy runtime would have served two great purposes: fleshing out the story and characters, and doing a better job of matching the vastness and majesty of the visual presentation and the colossal themes the film presents.

The movie is definitely worth watching at least once for the unique and spooky environment, the VERY 80's and very fun visual effects, some unique thematic ideas, the Tangerine Dream music score, and to see the first film performance of Gandalf himself, Sir Ian McKellan, but it's far from perfect - it's widely known to be a massive failure of a film, but especially if you dig 80's sci-fi or horror, you need to give this anomaly a watch. The Michael Mann trajectory is so bizarre...to go from Thief, to THIS, to Manhunter, and then to Last of The Mohicans and HEAT in the 90's...wild stuff. Regardless of the fact that Mann now "disowns" this film entirely, I would LOVE to see the 3.5 director's cut of this film on a brilliant Blu Ray transfer - this movie deserves to be seen in full quality, and the way the creator intended! Maybe they could fix some of those bizarre segments where the audio just seems to be missing as well...Wild, wild stuff.