Review of The Keep (1983) by Mark G — 01 Mar 2011

This is a straight-up weird film. If you didn't know beforehand, you'd suspect pretty quickly that it's based on a book. You can just tell that vast parts of the story are being passed over in favor of pushing the plotline forward.

It's a Michael Mann film, so you know it's going to look great, and it does. But, as is also typical of his films, the music is a touch jarring and the acting weirdly stylized. Jurgen Prochnow is fantastic as the conscientious Nazi caught up in the evils of Hitler's vision.

Gabriel Byrne is typically vile as the lock-step monster. And the rest of the cast does a fine job with the weird story and dialog. Unfortunately, the whole thing is far too short to explore the concept.

One of these days I'll read the book. In a sense, it kind of feels like the following year's Dune, where you know there's something really cool there, but it doesn't quite make it to the screen.