- Michael Mann's sole foray into the horror/sci-fi genres, The Keep is a complete anomaly both in subject matter and in being significantly worse than any of the director's other feature-length films. Like David Fincher's Alien 3 or David Lynch's Dune, the film is simply a terrible fit to a director whose talents and interests clearly lie elsewhere. The dated visual effects are an unwelcome departure from Thief's amazing practical work, the film's many talented actors all deliver uninspired performances in a variety of accents, its sound levels are completely unbalanced, and Tangerine Dream's electronic score fails to match the film's period or tone. The costume and set designs aren't bad, but it's a shame I had to dig so deep to find a compliment.
- The story revolves around Nazi efforts to occupy an ancient fortress in Romania during World War II. Despite warnings from the fearful local priest (Robert Prosky), the soldiers' pillaging invites the wrath of a magical force that completely desiccates their bodies. Although the relatively conscientious Captain Woermann (Jürgen Prochnow) wants only to solve this mystery to protect his men, his authority is superseded by the brutal Sturmbannführer Kaempffer (Gabriel Byrne), who suspects partisans. Dr. Theodore Cuza (Ian McKellen) and his daughter Eva (Alberta Watson) are retrieved from a concentration camp to assist, but it's not clear that anybody understands the magical forces at work here. In the meantime, a strange motorcyclist (Scott Glenn) with glowing eyes slowly makes his way toward the keep.
- Honestly, this description doesn't sound half bad by 80's horror movie standards. In fact, The Keep is probably not quite lousy enough to merit full-on Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment, but boy is this a dull and confounding film. After seeing it, I really couldn't tell you whether the mysterious villain (Michael Carter) was a demon or an alien, or why his (admittedly impressive) appearance keeps changing. Scott Glenn's character is a complete cypher, too, although his sex scene with Watson certainly seems like an inaccurate alien guess at how human reproduction works. At any rate, I'm glad that this film's excessive fog did not hover over Michael Mann for the rest of his career. I'm even more glad he never returned to sci-fi.
- Michael Carter played Bib Fortuna in Return of the Jedi! That discovery made me unreasonably happy.
