The Keep

The Keep

Michael Mann's The Keep, from 1983, is a ludicrous horror film. Mann's direction gives the film a cheesy intensity, but the material is so outlandish that Mann's sober tone doesn't gibe. The plot, such as it is, concerns a mysterious fortress in Romania that Nazi troops occupy in 1941. A mystical entity starts knocking off the soldiers until a professor played by Ian McKellen and a mysterious wanderer played by Scott Glenn join forces to combat the what-zit.

This has to be the worst acted of all Mann's films. McKellen, Gabriel Byrne and Robert Prosky all turn in competent performances, but the majority of the cast flails. Jurgen Prochnow is the worst offender, spitting his lines out with misplaced hysteria. Scott Glenn is his usual taciturn self, but his character is so ridiculous he cannot help but verge on self-parody. His wordless courting of leading lady Alberta Watson is risible, but so is Ms. Watson's big 80s hair. Her mop resembles a slightly used Brillo pad and it is no wonder she could not project a comprehensible character under its weight. Some of Mann's visuals are striking and the Tangerine Dream score is appropriately spooky, alas The Keep is a fiasco.