“Houses don’t kill people. People kill people.”
George Lutz-Amityville Horror (2005)
Michael Mann is one of my favorite directors. So when I realized I hadn’t seen his lone horror film, I had to add it to my list. The Keep’s plot synopsis goes like this: Nazis are sent to guard an old, mysterious fortress in a Romanian pass. Greedy soldiers trying to steal silver accidentally release an unknown force trapped within the walls. A mysterious stranger senses this from his home in Greece and travels to the keep to vanquish the force. As soldiers are killed, a Jewish man and his daughter (both knowledgeable of the keep) are brought in to find out what is happening.
There are a few reasons why I hadn’t seen this film before Halloweenfest 2023. It didn’t receive a physical release in the U.S. until 2020. It didn’t come to streaming until 2017. So, in short, this movie was virtually impossible to watch in the U.S. until a few years ago.
The main reason The Keep didn’t get distribution is because Mann has disavowed the film. The original cut of the film was 210 minutes. He was forced to edit the film twice. Once to get the movie to 120 minutes, and then after a test screening, to bring it to around 90 minutes. Another huge issue was that two weeks into post-production, visual effects supervisor Wally Veevers died, forcing Mann to do all the effects himself.
Production issues aside, the frantic editing does hurt the film tremendously. Several quick cuts and plot points make little to no sense. There’s an early scene in which two soldiers are killed, and we cut to Captain Klaus Woermann talking about six of his men being killed. I was flummoxed and thought, why didn’t the film spend time building up to this?
The Keep has a stacked cast that includes Scott Glenn, Ian McKellen, Jürgen Prochnow, Gabriel Byrne, and Robert Prosky. McKellen and Prochnow do most of the heavy lifting, but Byrne is such a menacing presence that he steals the show. I hate to belabor the point, but I would love to see the director’s cut because I know there are some great moments we don’t see.
Overall, The Keep is an atmospheric and fun experience. It’s hard to judge the film for its choppy narrative because the production company forced Mann to cut the film to shreds. I do believe we were robbed of an epic because what did make it to the screen was mesmerizing. The special and practical effects hold up exceptionally well. Ian McKellen and Jürgen Prochnow give two outstanding performances, but unfortunately, there’s too much missing from the final film to make this a great movie. Who wants to start a petition with me to get Michael Mann’s director’s cut released?
Rating: 6/10
