The Keep [1983]

Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production:
Running Times: 96 mins
Length:
Format: 35mm/Panavision [anamorphic]
Colour Format: Rankcolor
Ratio: 2.35:1
Sound: Dolby

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Paramount / Associated Capital / Capital Equipment Leasing
Executive Producer: Colin M. Brewer
Producers: Gene Kirkwood, Howard W. Koch Jr
Associate Producers: Theresa Curtin, Gavin MacFayden
Production Supervisor: Patrick Clayton

SCRIPT
Script: Michael Mann
Novel: F. Paul Wilson

DIRECTION
Director: Michael Mann
1st Assistant Directors: Roger Simmons, Ray Corbett
2nd Assistant Director: Kieron Phipps
3rd Assistant Director: Callum McDougall
2nd Unit Assistant Director: Paul Madigan

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Alex Thompson
2nd Unit Photography: Arthur Lavis
Camera Operators: Shaun O'Dell, John Golding
Focus Pullers: Peter Robinson, Tony gaudioz
Clapper / Loaders: Shane O'Neill, Gary Spradling
Camera Grips: Ken Atherford, Bill Geddes
Electricians: Wick Finch, Micky Wilson
Stills: Graham Attwood
Cameras and Lenses: Joe Dunton Cameras Ltd
Grip and Lighting Equipment: Lee Electric
Laboratories: Metrocolor, London, UK; Rank Film Laboratories, Denham, UK

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Dov Hoenig
Additional Editor: Pamela Power
Associate Editor: Christopher Kelly
Post Production Supervisor: Phil Sanderson
Associate Producer [Post Production]: Richard Brams

MUSIC
Music: Tangerine Dream
Additional Music: Thomas Tallis [Gloria (from the Mass for Four Voices)]; Howard Blake [Theme From the Snowman]
Music Editor: Bob Badami

SOUND
Sound Mixer: Robin Gregory
Boom Operator: Terry Sharratt
Sound Editor: William Trent
Sound Re-Recording: Delta Sound Services Ltd

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Beryl Leiman, Richard Mills
Hair: Barbara Ritchie
Costume Designer: Anthony Mendleson
Wardrobe Supervisor: Rosemary Burrows

SPECIAL MAKE UP EFFECTS
Make Up Effects Supervisor: Nick Maley
Special Make Up Effects: Nick Allder, Graham Freeborn

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects Supervisor: Nick Allder
Special Effects Technician: Allan Byrne, Garth Inns, Melvyn Pearson
Creature / Prosthetics Designer: Nick Maley
Creature Crew: Denise Horsham, Bob Keen, Christine Overs, David White
Smoke Effects: Roger Simons
Laser Effects: LaseFX, John Carr, Ken Goddard

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects Supervisors: Wally Veevers, Robin Browne
Optical Effects: D. Hall
Mattes: Douglas Ferris
Matte Cameramen: Ron Crees, John Palmer
Matte Camera Operators: Dennis Fitzgibbon, Stuart Galloway, John Turner Grant, Keith Holland, Roy Carnell
Opticals: Filmfex Productions Ltd; Optical Film Effects Ltd; Rank Film Laboratories Ltd; Vee Films Ltd; Visual Concept Engineering
Optical Camera Operators: Jaime Harcourt, Ken Worringham
Optical Focus Pullers: John Fletcher, Keith Thomas
Models Art Director: Leslie Tomkins
Titles: Thomas Sullivan
Titles Shot By: Geoff Axtell Associates

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: John Box
Art Directors: Herbert Westbrook, Alan Tomkins
Set Decorator: Michael Seirton
Property Master: George Ball
Molosar Illustrator: Enki Bilal
Draughtsman: Kevin Phipps

MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Ann Edwards
Secretary to Brewer: Jean Hall
Secretary to Mann: Maria Gray
Dialect Coach: Julie Adams

LOCATIONS
Locations: North Wales, UK
Studio: Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, UK

STUNTS
Stunt Coordinator: Alf Joint
Stunts: Tracey Eddon, Paddy Ryan, Jim Dowdall, Andy Bradford, Nick Hobbs, Doug Robinson

CAST
Jürgen Prochnow [Captain Klaus Woermann]
Scott Glenn [Glaeken Trismegestus]
Ian McKellen [Professor Theodore Cuzo]
Alberta Watson [Eva Cuzo]
Gabriel Byrne [Major Kaempffer]
Robert Prosky [Father Fonescu]
William Morgan Sheppard [Alexandru]
Royston Tickner [Tomescu]
Michael Carter [Molasar]
Philip Joseph [Sergeant Oster]
John Vine [Lutz]
Jona Jones [Otto]
Wolf Kahler [SS adjutant]
Rosalie Crutchley [Josefia]
Frederick Warder [border guard 1]
Bruce Payne [border guard 2]
David Cardy [Alexandru's son]
John Eastham [Alexandru's 2nd son]
Philip Bloomfield [Josefia's son]
Yashar Adem [Carlos]
Stephen Whittaker, Ian Ruskin, Stephen Jenn, Benedick Blythe, Robin Langford [SS commandos]
Benny Krupinski, Peter Guiness, Sean Baker, Timothy Block [Wehrmacht soldiers]

A platoon of German troops in Second World War Rumania are sent to guard an ancient fortress high in a mountain pass. One of them accidentally frees an ancient evil that has been trapped in the keep for many years and it attracts the attention of the mysterious Glaeken Trismegestus who psychically senses the release of the evil, Molasar, from his home in Greece. As he races towards Rumania, the German troops are slowly decimated by Molasar...

The Keep has been seriously over-rated is some quarters on the strength of the Michael Mann connection. But apart from one or two exceptionally spooky moments and a fantastic but to the next-to-impossible-to-find Tangerine soundtrack, it really isn't all that great. The plot is muddled, the effects too cheap looking and fabulous the cast all seem uncomfortable and out-of-place. The few creepy and atmospheric moments just make you wish that Mann had had a better grasp of what makes a good horror film.

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Video Distributor: Paramount Home Video
Laserdisc Distributor: Laserdisc Distributors: Paramount [LV 1563]; Paramount [LV 1563-WS]

Australia
Rating: M

France
Rating: -12

Norway
Rating: 15

Sweden
Rating: 15

UK
Rating: 18

USA
Rating: R

1983
December
16: USA - theatrical release

1984
May
2: France - theatrical release
4: Sweden - theatrical release

2006
August
3: UK - shown at the National Film Theatre, London
8: UK - shown at the National Film Theatre, London

THEY WERE ALL DRAWN TO THE KEEP. The soldiers who brought death. The father and daughter fighting for life. The people who have always feared it. And the one man who knows its secret... THE KEEP Tonight, they will all face the evil.

'request immediate relocation... something is murdering my me...'

Die Unheimliche Macht - German title
Paholaisen pesä - Finnish title
La forteresse noire - French title
Satans borg - Swedish title

MAGAZINES

Halls of Horror no.27 p.7 [UK]
note

Necronomicon no.7 pp.35-39 [UK]
review

BOOKS

Creature Features Strikes Again p.213
credits, review [by John Stanley]

Hoffman's Guide to SF, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991 - 1992 p.202
credits, review

Horror and Science Fiction Films Volume III pp.151-152
credits

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

book into film, castles, curses, demons, military, myths, nazis, the supernatural, war, world war two

Last Updated: 11 October, 2007