Review of The Keep (1983) by Stephen C — 03 Jan 2013

Wow,after his debut feature Thief, director Micahel Mann gives us something altogether different this time around with a feast for the eyes but a shaky central plot premise.

A group of Nazi soldiers turn up in a Romanian town, which has at its centre a huge castle keep.

This keep of the title contains an evil force which kills off the soldiers and begins to take human form.

Its after these deaths that the SS turn up in the shape of a wonderfully hammy Gabriel Byrne who belives the deaths are the work of human rather than other worlds.

Also arriving at the keep is a mysterious stranger played by Scott Glenn who is determined to destroys the evil of the Keep which has manifest itsself to Jewish Professor Cuza played with the right amount of OTT by Ian McKellern.

The film looks fantastic as Alex Thompsons beautiful camera work lights up the screen aided by an outstanding score by Tagerine dream who hav ethis ability to put their scores to some truly unique film.

The plot has loads of problems and if you like subtle understated acting then you should go elsewhere and its fair to say on the whole the film is a bit of a clunker.

But the biggest shock for me is that this film has never been released on DVD !!!!!!!!!!!! surely the time is ripe for a restoration to Blu Ray .

A flawed film from a great director then but still worth watching for all its flaws.