The Keep

The Keep (1983)

They were all drawn to the keep. Tonight, they will all face the evil.

Set during World War II, a German army garrison is sent to guard a mountain pass in a village in Romania's Carpathian mountains and sets up barracks in an ancient stone fortress. Two of the soldiers unwittingly release a mysterious entity that kills or corrupts those within its influence, drawing the attention of a Gestapo commander, a Jewish scholar, and a mysterious traveller.

Date of release
1983-12-16
TMDB
5.6 / 10 (341)
Runtime
1h 36m
Genres
Horror, Fantasy
Director
Michael Mann

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: $4.2M
  • Budget: $6M
  • Earned 0.7× its budget
  • Based on: The Keep

The Keep is a 1983 supernatural horror film written and directed by Michael Mann and starring Scott Glenn, Gabriel Byrne, Jürgen Prochnow, Alberta Watson and Ian McKellen. Set in Romania during World War II, it follows a group of Nazi soldiers who unleash a malevolent supernatural force after setting up camp in an ancient stone fortress in the Carpathian Mountains. It is an adaptation of the 1981 novel of the same title by American writer F. Paul Wilson. The musical score was composed by Tangerine Dream.

Production

Principal photography began in September 1982 in Wales, with an original shooting schedule of 13 weeks. Filming was gruelling, and once principal photography was finished, additional re-shoots were done which extended the filming for a total of 22 weeks.

The sets for the Romanian village were built at the disused Glyn Rhonwy quarry, a former slate quarry near Llanberis in North Wales. Some interiors of the keep utilised the stonework within the Llechwedd Slate Caverns, near Blaenau Ffestiniog. Due to heavy rain, the film suffered significant delays in its shooting schedule. Shepperton Studios near London was used for interior Keep scenes featuring the demon Molasar.

English historian and film costume designer Andrew Mollo, brother of John Mollo of Star Wars fame, worked as an historical consultant for the German military costumes. In spite of the fact that war time Waffen-SS members typically wore grey-green (field grey) uniforms, according to Mollo, Michael Mann was insistent that they wear their iconic black uniforms, to let the audience know that Byrne's character and his men were Nazi fanatics.

The appearance of the film's malevolent villain, Molasar, was changed several times during filming because Michael Mann was unsure of how he wanted him to appear. Initially, Molasar was envisioned by Mann as an intangible entity whose appearance would be influenced purely by his surroundings. However, this description as it appeared in Mann's screenplay proved difficult for the special effects team to create.

The film's special effects were designed by Nick Maley, along with Nick Allder, who had previously worked on Alien and The Empire Strikes Back. Molasar was conceived by Enki Bilal.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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