Folie contrôlée

I have recently become a fan of British horror film actor Christopher Lee. I have found that there are bad Christopher Lee movies such as "The Passage," "End of the World," "To The Devil A Daughter," "Bear Island," and "Howling II."

And, then, there is "The Keeper."

Lee plays a psychiatrist who runs a mental asylum for the wealthy and is murdering the relatives of his patients so he can gain access to their fortunes. Many of these murders have been set up to appear as accidents. A private investigator and the police hope to eventually "catch him in the act."

Not even Christopher Lee can save this movie. I found this movie in the Horror section of my video store but it is actually more of a detective movie((Another Lee movie, "The Wicker Man," also combined different genres(Including the Horror movie and Detective story), but please don't try to compare this movie to "The Wicker Man." There is absolutely no comparison.)) At best, parts of the story are unclear. The screenwriters don't even give Lee's character an actual name; he is simply referred to as "The Keeper." Lee's character is somewhat physically disabled and operating completely on his own, so it's not made clear how he is able to commit all of the murders so adeptly. Lee's performance is fine but the rest of the acting in the film is hopelessly amateurish. The film is apparently meant to be a serious suspense film but lame humor is inexplicably weaved throughout the entire story. The hypnosis sequences in the film are absolutely laughable.

For a great Christopher Lee film, see "The Wicker Man," "The Devil Rides Out," and the ORIGINAL "Horror of Dracula."

I give this film 2 points for hiring a well known actor like Lee. I give it another point for making it a historical film(set in the 40s or so)without any glaring anachronism and another point for having adequate camera and sound (which should be a given but I'll be kind as it was made in my place of birth).

This is a terrible boring film. Likely the worst Christopher Lee film I have watched--even worse than his Jess Franco Fu Manchu movies. Worse than the Star Wars prequels. Worse than the Crimson Cult. Worse than Howling 2.

By general bad movie standards it is worse than Dracula vs Frankenstein. At least those films had some entertainment value--this really has none other than wondering what Lee must have thought as he was making it.

Canadian movies can and often do lack passion, imagination, and when all else fails turn into feeble comedies. 9 times out of 10, if you hear about a Canadian sci-fi or horror movie made by native-born Canadians, chances are its a /comedy of some sort.

In this case the film is likely inspired by Chinatown and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest combined with 1930s street drama and any kind of mad doctor story you can think of just to make it have low budget commercial appeal.

The private investigator Driver attempts to act suave and cool like Sam Spade and fails, but isn't aware of it. It isn't funny in a Leslie Nielsen kind of way.

The dialogue is disjointed and poorly thought out so you get exchanges like this: Private Eye: Has there been any murders at the asylum? Police Chief: Yes, seven--but what troubles me is, what if these deaths were actually murders? Its an amateur film on almost every level except the picture and sound are functional (perhaps to the viewer's detriment) with a decent enough use of locations and period costumes. There's no attempt at moody lighting, and the soundtrack is a 70s electronic score of some kind --not keeping with the era it is presenting.

This is the first Canadian genre film made in British Columbia by Canadians (other than a porn film) and it is a complete failure. Not even useful as a so bad it is good kind of experience. If you don't believe me, waste an hour and a half of your life and find out.

Unlike some viewers, who have only "recently" become Christopher Lee fans, I've been a fan of Lee for 25 years. Now I don't have a gripe with Steven Kuroiwa's review of this film, since it isn't very good. I do, however, have a problem with upstarts passing themselves off as reliable critical sources, putting viewers off a remarkable film like Peter Sykes's To the Devil a Daughter, a film that falls just shy of his masterpiece Demons of the Mind (both films written, or co-written, by the great Christopher Wicking). So if you were unfortunate enough to read that review, put it out of your mind. And put To the Devil a Daughter at the top of your queue. I have spoken.

The Keeper is a poor attempt at a psychological horror film in which Lee plays the head of an asylum that caters to rich families with unstable family members whom they want to keep out of public. What really sinks this film is the incredibly amateurish look. You'd swear that it was made by film making students. There are no scares and the plot has some really stupid holes and characters, especially a dopey policeman who gets hypnotized. Lee looks like he wishes he were elsewhere throughout the film. Can't say that I blame him!

"The Keeper" is frustrating. The basic plot is pretty interesting and it stars Christopher Lee...yet the story is pretty dull and the acting often rather poor.

The owner of a mental asylum (Lee) is a very bad sort. He uses hypnosis to make people do all sorts of bad things and he kills the family members of rich residents so that he can eventually gain control of their fortunes. He also kills off residents if the family finds them to be embarrassing or too much trouble. Most of the story is about private dicks' attempts to catch 'The Keeper' (Lee) and put him out of business.

This should have been interesting...but wasn't. Poor acting by all but Lee and the shoeshine boy are much of the problem, though cheap music and special effects also hinder the story.

By the way, in lots of films you see hypnosis being used in all sorts of evil and exploitive ways. Sadly, as a trained hypnotherapist, I have been unable to do any of this and want my money back!