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The Keep: what an oustanding movie!

dennilfloss

dennilfloss

Past Lifer 1957-2014 In Memoriam
THE KEEP

1983 Paramount Pictures

Director: Michael Mann
Producers: Gene Kirkwood, Howard W. Koch Jr.
Screenplay: Michael Mann
(Based on a novel by F. Paul Wilson)
Cinematography: Alex Thompson
Editor: Dov Hoenig
Cast: Scott Glenn, Alberta Watson, Gabriel Byrne, Jurgen Prochnow, Ian McKellan, Robert Prosky, William Morgan Sheppard, Royston Tickner, Phillip Joseph, Michael Carter, John Vine, Jona Jones, Wolf Kahler, Rosalie Crutchley, Frederick Warder

Michael Mann's very strange and critically savaged film has a Nazi platoon setting up base in an old Romanian castle to guard a strategic mountain pass. The soldiers dismiss the locals' fear of the fortress as superstition, until they start getting picked off by the spirits that inhabit the place. They soon realise they are going to have to put their faith in a dying Jewish professor (Ian MacKellen) and his ravishing daughter (Alberta Watson) in order to translate archaic documents that hold the keep's secret.
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I just love this movie as it harkens to older times when the main thing to scare you was the unknown, when the true nature of the beast was not revealed until the end, if at all. To this day I am not sure what the two main protagonists are and this is all right by me. Maybe I'd find out if I read the novel that inspired this movie but I am not sure I want to know.

Here is a movie where the atmosphere is what really matters (and this is amplified by the amazing Tangerine Dream soundtrack), the fog and the locale, a movie devoid of the now-too-common gore, a movie where motives are not black or white and the final confrontation between good and evil is actually very short and one-sided with no martial arts moves and happily no second breath (the dreaded Carrie effect where the seemingly dead monsters jumps back up for more punishment), and where we do not know the final fates of the opponents with any certainty.

A huge thumbs up for me as I'll be rewatching it again tonight. 🙂
 
I didn't know Michael Mann filmed any movies before the Miami Vice TV show. I'll have to check this out.
 
The book is waaaaaay better.

Hopefully the "sequel" that's in development hell will get picked up and made into a movie . . . Repairman Jack rules. 😀
 
I too vaguely recall this movie. I think I liked it, but am not sure. Some dreary rainy day by a road and some old ruins comes to mind, but not much else.
 
atmospheric thrillers are my favorite kind of thrillers. Most 'monster' movies end up being done in horrible taste and just are not effective for me. Although, I do know many that simply cannot watch any monster movie as it is too scary.

Although well-done movies, of recent times, that blended monster and atmosphere, are: Mothman Prophecies, Silent Hill (the first time you watch it, those sirens, effects, and other atmospheric clues REALLY work well), and 1408 (theatrical version! I recently saw director's cut on VOD, and it changed a lot of the ending that completely removed the effect and destroyed the entire movie. really was a shame).
I also really enjoyed 'They' ('Wes Craven presents'... added his name just like Quentin Tarantino did for Hostel, except They wasn't a heaping pile of shit), and I remember 'Session Nine' being incredibly effective the first time I watched it. Sadly, the effect was gone the second time because I knew nothing would happen. Although the twist, I apparently, had forgotten in the time between viewings.
There are others that stand out too, but my brain is focused on other things now, and I gotta get back to that school work.

I should rent The Keep sometime. Sounds like something I might enjoy.
 
No I haven't.

The first part of Prince Of Darkness is also excellent as far as atmospheric horror goes.😎
 
Originally posted by: dennilfloss
No I haven't.

The first part of Prince Of Darkness is also excellent as far as atmospheric horror goes.😎
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Yeah... That one jumps the shark at the end, but does get really creepy in parts.
 
Michael Mann is awesome. Hopefully he bounces back form the crapfest that was Miami Vice.

Another one of his good earlier work is Theif. Text
 
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