The Keep

The Keep is an unusually striking masterpiece (in my opinion), and even if I'm the only person in the world who believes so there is one thing that nobody can disagree The Keep is a lost classic. I say lost because The Keep is one of the most difficult movies to track down from a major production company. Last seen on terrestrial television 15 years ago as part of BBC2's lost week-end and accidentally screened by Sky Movies in 2005; The Keep has been unavailable to buy in any format since 1984. What's unusual is that the movie was produced by Paramount Pictures was directed by the now critically acclaimed Michael Mann (the man behind Miami Vice, Heat, Collateral, Manhunter & The Last Of The Mohicans) and stars Ian McKellen, Gabriel Byrne, Scott Glenn, Jurgen Prochnow and 24's Alberta Watson. It's a massive scale movie that almost switches fromhorror to music video style rock opera mid section, so what is the mystery behind The Keep?

Set during the Second World War Captain Klaus Woermann (Jurgen Prochnow)and his Nazi invasion force arrive in a small Romanian village, the central point of the village being a giant Keep; shrouded in mystery it is both worshipped and revered by the villages inhabitants. During the day it's shrouded by mist, and at night it's the coldest place on the earth. The keep is filled with nickel crosses that adorn its walls, 108 crosses to be precise. The soldiers decide that not only is the village a suitable location to set up camp, but the keep is the ideal location to set up camp; despite the pleads ofd the keeps caretaker for them to stay outside.




Greed gets the better of two soldiers having discovered that a glowing cross is in fact silver and not nickel; and hoping that more silver remains behind them the soldiers open a block in the wall. Behind the block is a passage that leads into a giant and mysterious cavern with a strange sacrificial alter at its heart. In opening the cavern the two not only release a terrible creature from long incarceration, but have a swift and horrific death off the back of their greed.

As the soldiers one by one meet with violent and unexpected deaths as the days go on, in a small Greek island Glaeken Trismegegestus (Scott Glen) awakens in the full knowledge of what has occurred, and sets sail for Romania hoping the seal the keep once and for all. But the creature has been more cunning than its past escapes and has secured an ally in the form of Jewish Doctor Theodore Cuza (Ian McKellen), whose daughter was saved by the creature. As the Nazi army grows with the arrival of Major Kaempffer (Gabriel Byrne) and his SS Extermination Squad the biggest war the Germans face is not on the front line but in a small backwater that nobody has ever heard of.

The Keep is impressive from the movies offset, not filmed in Romania as the stories setting its in fact filmed a little closer to home Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales to be exact. Its a very imposing backdrop which sets the stage for this equally imposing and at times deeply disturbing movie. While the Dracula legend is never mentioned, you cannot help but feel there is a strong connection being highlighted; and to some degree the creature's story marries up with the story of Dracula, a tale of imprisonment but where Dracula was imprisoned by the Daylight, the creature here is held captive by The Keep.

An interesting aspect of the story is the contrasting and head butting stories that move like incidental cogs around the main story. Cuza and his daughter are bought to the Keep to save the Nazi's with Cuza's knowledge, but the truth is that the villagers are hatching an elaborate plan to free him. The two factions of Nazi soldiers fight amongst themselves in a kind of battle for authority in a form of one up-manship. Every aspect of the story has a double meaning, making the terror of the creature almost a secondary horror of the movie. And as Cuza's daughter is violently raped you realise that the greatest evil is in fact within us. Cuza is more aware of the mind games that everyone is playing and on each occasion pushes the envelope to ensure that he is in fact the one controlling the strings. Not only does he overpower the minds of those on the same level as he, but Cuza also manages to cast his influence over the creature, his intention to bring the Nazi regime to an quick and sudden end.

In amongst this game playing and evilness there is some humanity Woermann is a Nazi officer undoubtedly challenged between his beliefs and his orders. He to some degree id the human as well as humane individual that you encounter during the film, a man going on a deep spiritual journey.

The Keep is not a film that can fit easily into one category to cast the movie as a horror tale is not only wrong but totally unjust, a crime in fact. The Keep is as much war movie as it is horror, its as much thriller as it is war movie, and as much fantasy as it is thriller. The story of The Keep is more spiritual and Art House than anything else, it's a movie that feels very European. One place that The Keep would never fall under the category of comedy; there is never anything about this movie to laugh about. It's not a movie you can embrace with a weakened state of mind either; this is a movie that demands total concentration.

The final moments of the movie are truly epic as the truly good fight against the truly evil, lines are drawn and lives are thrown asunder. It echoes in some ways the battles from the Star Wars movies, but unbelievably on a more epic and certainly more powerful level. It's most definitely another turning point of the movie that actually sends a shiver down your spine, this is not fear but an emotional deliverance that movies seldom deliver, and if the movie deserves praise for nothing else then this is a unique achievement worth 1000 lesser movies.

Music is a fundamental part of The Keep; in fact it's what makes the movie above all other aspects. Tangerine Dream delivers an instantly recognizable and epic score, a score mixed with the sounds of horror and hope. It's the soundtrack of The Keep that makes it seem so incredibly big, because despite its impressive setting this is a very low budget movie. I think if ever a movie has been served well by its musical compositions then The Keep would be the ultimate example; a score so impressive that it's as powerful if not more so than the action on the screen.

The movies performances are varied Ian McKellen goes from crippled dying man to all powerful force due to his kinship with the creature, he pulls off this transformation admirably and it would be hard to visualise anyone else achieving this. Scott Glen is an unusual choice of casting, not just in a movie but as the movies hero; emotionally his performance is free from any personality, although his presence is felt through the movies duration. Gabriel Byrne delivers his most hostile performance I have ever seen, and even when he plays the bad guy in movies there is always something likeable about him, here you just want him dead. But the Romanians led by Robert Prosky give me the most annoyance as most speak withAmerican accents as does Alberta Watson who plays Eva, Cuza's daughter.

The Keep was initially shot as per Michael Mann's vision with a running time of just over 2 hours. However Paramount pictures spurned it saying it was just too long, they immediately set about hacking away 30 minutes of the films content. The result was a slightly disjointed story (though still equally good) appalled at the cannibalism of the movie Mann turned his back on the project. The result of Paramount's cuts was felt in both its critical rejection, and by its audiences who felt that its initially impressive story had spiralled out of control. After its 1984 video release Paramount washed their hands of the movie, hence why no further release has been forthcoming. However like 1973's The Wicker Man years after it was released it slowly developed a fan base, and its now one of the most requested DVD titles of unavailable movies. With no sign of The Keep even being entertained for release its a film that might cause some heartache trying to see, but the quest is one that truly pays off, and for my money its one of my most prized possessions.