The Keep, 1983

character

Major Kaempffer

production

Directed by Michael Mann; screenplay by Michael Mann, based on the novel by F. Paul Wilson

Paramount Pictures, 1983

synopsis

Set in Romania during World War II, The Keep is a stylish horror film involving Nazis, a professor in a wheelchair, monstrous evil forces, and lots of fog and smoke. Jürgen Prochnow (Das Boot, Dune) and Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects) are German officers who have commandeered an ancient fortress, unleashing Molasar, the creepy denizen of the castle’s keep. After losing several of their soldiers to Molasar’s unnatural appetite, they desperately enlist the only man who can help them: a Jewish professor (Ian McKellen), now an internee at Auschwitz, whose expertise includes haunted fortresses. ~ Ian McKellen’s website

official poster

images

trailers

reviews

Scott Weinberg/eFilmCritic

The Keep is not a good movie. There are certainly worse choices you could make if you desperately HAD to rent a horror movie from the early eighties. What makes this movie a curiosity (in addition to the director and his wacky use of wind machines and strobe lights) is the cast. Jurgen Prochnow (of Das Boot and Beverly Hills Cop 2) is the nice Nazi sergeant. His plan seems to be to let his entire regiment slowly die before getting the hell out! This is interrupted by the MEAN Nazi who is played with manic glee by Gabriel Byrne! I was stunned to see him here, and it’s actually quite fun to see him doing his Colonel Klink impression and shooting people at will.

Variety

After his promising debut with The Thief, this is writer-director Michael Mann’s second feature [from a novel by F. Paul Wilson], testimony again to the one-step- forward, two-steps-back career theory.

Film 4

It is all rather tasteless, and Mann makes big demands of his audience by expecting them to sympathize with members of the SS, while the Tangerine Dream soundtrack jars. Because of its these flaws, you’d happily dismiss it, and yet something in there haunts you. The shadows and fog create an effectively eerie environment for the tension to build, and it just about wins you over. Both stupid and impressive.

behind the scenes

Ian McKellen’s Notes

We filmed in North Wales, in the tiny village of Bettws-y-coed where tourists drop by for a five minute look at the pretty waterfall before driving off to clamber round Caernarvon or Conway castles. On my free daysin Bettwys, it always seemed to be raining and the hotel was damp and drear.

The locations were spectacular whether outdoors in the disused quarry where the facade of the Keep was surrounded by an East-European-style village – or underground in the disbanded slate mines.

Sets for The Keep