Nazis, demons, magic talismans… Doesn’t sound like Michael Mann, does it? You’re correct, but for a short moment in the early eighties, the master of the gritty crime drama branched out in some strange directions. Not that you’d know, Mann rarely discusses it. After a promising debut in 1981 with the slick neo-noir Thief, Mann hit a speed bump in the form of The Keep.
Starring Jürgen Prochnow, Scott Glenn, Ian McKellen, and Gabriel Byrne, and taken from the book by F. Paul Wilson, The Keep explores German soldiers house sitting a medieval castle located in the backwater of the Carpathian Mountains of Romania in the early years of World War II. This fortress wasn’t built to keep invaders out, but instead to bury a dark force safely within. The Keep was a whole other animal from Mann’s usual crime work on TV, veering off into a doom-laden, Omen-esque horror film. It bears the hallmarks of Mann’s eighties sensibilities: ambient synth soundtrack, excessive slow-motion, tough-guy dialogue, etc., but that’s where similarities end.
Like ‘Indiana Jones’ (But the German Army Are the Good Guys)
Mann’s timing was lousy. The World War II setting is largely incidental. The film battled not only comparisons to other recent blockbuster war films like A Bridge Too Far and Apocalypse Now, but Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, also produced by Paramount. One recognizable Raiders actor, Wolf Kahler, does pop up here too in Nazi regalia, though his face doesn’t melt off this time around. We won’t spoil the details, but rest assured, the Germans don’t fare any better against this paranormal entity. Should that sound like a rehash of Indiana Jones, the main protagonist here is a Nazi captain who states that the Germans are the “masters of the world.”
Indiana Jones’ adventure established some very unrealistic expectations. For one thing, there’s zero humor, and the pacing is horrible, for reasons we’ll cover in a second. The film’s minimalist first frames and choral droning music emit Dracula vibes, yet the film ponders the true nature of evil, heroism/cowardice, and moral complicity. It’s not a shocker Mann’s gloomy intellectual film bombed hard at the box office, because there’s no way Paramount Pictures could ever hope to successfully market it. The Keep bridged the gap between plodding arthouse and indie slasher movies, but not in a good way. It wasn’t a traditional horror film, and didn’t check any of the war genre boxes either. The cast was stellar, but none were big enough to headline a blockbuster. In a heartbeat, all the hype around Mann was deflated when viewers and critics glimpsed the final result.
An Intriguing, If Predictable, Misfire
Most of the film’s problems can probably be chalked up to Paramount depriving final edit from Mann, forcing several re-shoots and extra endings. In Paramount’s defense, a three-hour, philosophical horror film is a hard sell, and judging by the long original edit, inexperience got the better of the young director, testing the limits of Paramount Pictures. The 96-minute-long film — the only version you can currently see — is atmospheric, though it’s not helped by the special effects and an abrupt and truncated romantic subplot. Glenn’s character beams into the plot like Spock materializing onto a random alien planet. Character building and exposition are the biggest victims of the studio’s re-edit.
The problems go far deeper. It’s the type of movie that suffers the more it shows the monster, ruining the mystique. Critics compared the baddie to a stereotypical Marvel Comics villain with bulging pecs and glowing red eyes. Now you know why Spielberg waited so long to show that rubber shark in Jaws, and why Kubrick never showed the aliens in 2001. Quentin Tarantino dismissed the acting in general, and derided McKellen’s wig choice in particular as something straight out of a “bad community theater production.”
Once Bitten, Twice Shy?
On the other hand, the lush score by Tangerine Dream has aged astoundingly well. And should you believe Mann was only good for stylish shots of skyscrapers and filming shootouts, here he manages to make a generic forest terrifying and a modest set feel immense, cranking the fog machine up to eleven. Strangely, he never saw the film as horror, as he told Film Comment in 1983:
The idea of making this film within the genre of horror films appealed to me not at all. It also did not appeal to Paramount. That doesn’t mean the movie isn’t scary.
Very little of this movie appealed to Paramount. In that same interview, he discussed his desire to make Heat (which he would do twice, as a matter of fact), almost as if he couldn’t wait to rid himself of horror forever and move onto to greener pastures. Some will claim that his 1986 movie Manhunter is also horror, as it features Hannibal Lecter, but it fits in with Mann’s other crime thrillers as it is predominantly a procedural cop drama. He never got back to making a proper horror, sci-fi, or fantasy story. After the headache of dealing with Paramount and stitching together all the special effects — the original director of photography died before completion — it’s apparent why he lost his appetite.
An aversion all the more unfortunate in respect to his love of fantasy. He has voiced interest in trippy sci-fi and pulp comics, such as Heavy Metal, he told Variety. With forty-something years of ideas squirreled away, now’s as good a time as ever to try again. His clout and skill have only grown. The Keep is available to purchase on VOD on Prime Video and Apple TV.
- Release Date
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December 16, 1983
- Runtime
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96 minutes
- Writers
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Michael Mann, F. Paul Wilson
- Producers
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Gene Kirkwood
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Jürgen Prochnow
Captain Klaus Woermann
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Robert Prosky
Father Mihail Fonescu
