The Keep (film)
| The Keep | |
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| Directed by | Michael Mann |
| Produced by | Gene Kirkwood Howard W. Koch, Jr. |
| Screenplay by | Michael Mann |
| Based on | The Keep by F. Paul Wilson |
| Starring | Scott Glenn Gabriel Byrne Jürgen Prochnow Ian McKellen Alberta Watson Bruce Payne |
| Music by | Tangerine Dream |
| Cinematography | Alex Thomson |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 16, 1983 |
| Running time | 96 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6,000,000 (est.) |
| Box office | $3,661,757 (USA) |
The Keep is a 1983 horror film directed by Michael Mann and starring Scott Glenn, Gabriel Byrne, Jürgen Prochnow, Alberta Watson and Ian McKellen. It was released by Paramount Pictures. The story is based on the F. Paul Wilson novel of the same name, published in 1981 (1982 in the United Kingdom).
Wilson has expressed his distaste for the film version publicly, writing in the short story collection The Barren (and Others) that it is, “Visually intriguing, but otherwise utterly incomprehensible.”
Despite being a critical and commercial failure, it retained a cult following, mostly due to the film’s music score by Tangerine Dream and the film’s mixture of Gothic horror and World War II elements.[citation needed]
A board game based on the film was designed by James D. Griffin and published by Mayfair Games.
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[edit] Plot
The film focuses on a deserted citadel (the “Keep” of the title) in WWII Romania within which lies entrapped a dangerous and malevolent entity named Radu Molasar. When the German Army occupies the castle to control the Dinu Mountain Pass, Molasar is unwittingly unleashed from deep within the innermost recesses of the citadel by a pair of treasure-seeking soldiers and he consumes their life energy. A detachment of Einsatzkommandos then arrives to deal with what is thought to be partisan activity. The Einsatzkommandos' actions only fuel the demon's hunger for bloodshed and soon more troops begin to die in mysterious, gruesome ways.
At the instigation of the local priest, the Germans retrieve a Jewish historian, Professor Cuza, from a death camp to decipher a mysterious message emblazoned on a wall of the keep. The demonic and, at this point, cloudlike Molasar saves the professor's daughter, Eva Cuza, from a sexual assault by two Einsatzkommandos and then enlists the aid of her grateful father to escape from the Keep. Cuza is also cured of his debilitating scleroderma by the touch of Molasar and therefore becomes doubly indebted to the malevolent entity. A mysterious stranger arrives to foil this plan, however. After a misguided and unsuccessful attempt by the professor to have the stranger stopped, the two supernatural beings engage in a confrontation in which the demon is weakened and drawn back into the innermost recesses, and the hero inevitably finds himself pulled in as well, his fate linked with the demon that was his destined foe to guard from ever escaping the Keep. At this point, the studio version of the film comes to an end.
[edit] Cast
- Scott Glenn as Glaeken Trismegestus
- Alberta Watson as Eva Cuza
- Jürgen Prochnow as Captain Klaus Woermann
- Robert Prosky as Father Fonescu
- Gabriel Byrne as SD Officer Sturmbannführer Eric Kaempffer
- Ian McKellen as Dr. Theodore Cuza
- Morgan Sheppard as Alexandru
- Royston Tickner as Tomescu
- Michael Carter as Radu Molasar
- Bruce Payne as Border Guard
[edit] The score
The theme and incidental music was by Tangerine Dream. Although the soundtrack was eventually released in 1997, out of 16 tracks only three actually appeared in the film.[1]
[edit] Release
The film was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by Paramount Pictures on December 16, 1983. It grossed $4,218,594 million at the domestic box office.[2]
The film was released on laserdisc and VHS by Paramount Home Video.[3] As of 2012, the film has not been officially released on DVD in any country, although it is currently available for streaming with Netflix.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Ranier Rutka. "The Keep". The Tangerine Dream Database. http://www.rutka.org/td/keep.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-15.
- ^ "The Keep". boxofficemojo.com. http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=keep.htm. Retrieved 2011-04-19.
- ^ "Company Credits for The Keep". imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085780/companycredits. Retrieved 2011-04-19.
[edit] External links
- The Keep at the Internet Movie Database
- The Keep at AllRovi
- McKellen, Ian. "The Keep: Notes by Ian McKellen". http://www.mckellen.com/cinema/keep/notes.htm.
- Manhunter.net’s take on The Keep—including a complete set of colour lobby cards from 1983
- A Keep website dedicated to getting a director’s cut
- Molasar’s Homepage features pictures of the various endings of the film
- Link to information on the Keep boardgame
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