The Keep
Directed by	Michael Mann
Produced by	Gene Kirkwood Howard W. Koch Jr.
Written by	F. Paul Wilson (novel The Keep) Michael Mann (screenplay)
Starring	Scott Glenn Gabriel Byrne Jürgen Prochnow Ian McKellen Alberta Watson
Music by	Tangerine Dream
Cinematography	Alex Thomson
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	December 16, 1983 (U.S.)
Running time	96 min
Country	United States of America
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Keep is a 1983 horror film directed by Michael Mann and starring Scott Glenn, Gabriel Byrne, Jürgen Prochnow, and a dubbed Ian McKellen. It was released by Paramount Pictures. The story is based on the F. Paul Wilson novel of the same name, published in 1981 (1982 in the United Kingdom). Image File history File links Size of this preview: 409 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (600 × 880 pixel, file size: 62 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Paramount This image is of a film poster, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the... Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943 in Chicago) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. ... Francis Paul Wilson (b. ... Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943 in Chicago) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. ... Theodore Scott Glenn (born January 26, 1941) is an American actor known for supporting roles. ... Gabriel Byrne (born 12 May 1950) is an Irish actor. ... Bold textItalic text Jürgen Prochnow as Duke Leto Atreides in David Lynchs Dune Jürgen Prochnow [IPA: jʏrgÉ›n prÉ”xnÉ”v] (June 10, 1941 in Berlin) is a German actor. ... Sir Ian Murray McKellen CBE, (born May 25, 1939) is a veteran English stage and screen actor, the recipient of a Tony Award and two Oscar nominations. ... Alberta Watson Faith Susan Alberta Watson (born March 6, 1955 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian movie and television series actress, better known as Alberta Watson. ... Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. ... Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. ... -1... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943 in Chicago) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. ... Theodore Scott Glenn (born January 26, 1941) is an American actor known for supporting roles. ... Gabriel Byrne (born 12 May 1950) is an Irish actor. ... Bold textItalic text Jürgen Prochnow as Duke Leto Atreides in David Lynchs Dune Jürgen Prochnow [IPA: jʏrgÉ›n prÉ”xnÉ”v] (June 10, 1941 in Berlin) is a German actor. ... Sir Ian Murray McKellen CBE, (born May 25, 1939) is a veteran English stage and screen actor, the recipient of a Tony Award and two Oscar nominations. ... Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. ... Francis Paul Wilson (b. ... The Keep is a novel written by American author F. Paul Wilson. ...

The video run time of 1:37 is thought to be a studio-ordered cut against the wishes of Michael Mann. His cut of choice is speculated to be in the three to four hour range.^{[citation needed]}

Wilson himself has expressed his distaste for the film version publicly, writing in the short story collection The Barren (and Others) that it is, "Visually intriguing, but otherwise utterly incomprehensible." When talk of a DVD release of the film came about in 2004, Wilson and a friend recorded a caustic CD commentary to go along with it, which he teased to his official mailing list [1], "The F File", although the CD appears to have never actually been released.

Plot

The film focused on a deserted citadel (the keep of the title) in Romania within which lives a dangerous demon. When the German Wehrmacht occupies the castle to control a mountain pass, the demon is mistakenly unleashed from the walls of the citadel and begins killing German soldiers. At this point, the Einsatzkommando arrives to deal with what was thought to be partisan activity. The Einsatzkommando actions only fuel the demon's rage and soon troops begin to die in mysterious ways. This article is about a type of fortification. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Daemon (mythology). ... Wehrmacht   (armed forces, literally defence force(s)) was the name of the armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. ... Einsatzkommando is a German military term with the literal translation of mission commando, roughly equivalent to the English term task force. The Nazi-era Einsatzkommando refers to a subgroup of the four Einsatzgruppen, killing squads in Operation Barbarossa that were responsible for carrying out mass executions behind the German lines. ... Look up partisan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

This results in the Germans locating a Jewish professor who had studied the Keep years before. The demon enlists the aid of the professor to escape from the Keep; however a mysterious stranger then arrives to stop the demon. The stranger confronts the professor and tells him the demon of the Keep is as evil as the Germans it is killing, and then the stranger and the demon do battle. The demon is destroyed, but the stranger (who is revealed to be a super-human creature who imprisoned the demon centuries before) is mortally wounded. Alternate versions of the film show the stranger coming back to life and leaving the keep with the professor's daughter, with whom a love interest had developed. The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination... In religion and ethics, Irish evil refers to the morally objectionable aspects of the behaviour and reasoning of human beings — those which are deliberately void of conscience, and show a wanton penchant for destruction. ...

The stranger known as Glaeken Trimesgestus in the book like in one of the alternative versions, comes back to life an in turn notices he can see his reflection a puddle of water beside him hinting that he is a Vampire, although this is never confirmed or denied.

The Keep is the first of six books called the Adversary cycle, the second of which, The Tomb (The Rakosh) is currently under re-write after re-write for a script to one day be made into a film by Beacon Films.

Quotes

"In this village, partisans have been operating against the Greater German Reich!" -SS Major Masouleh village, Gilan Province, Iran. ... Partisan may refer to: A member of a lightly-equipped irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

"You have...death around you." -Molasar

"I will DESTROY them!!" - Molasar

Other media

The film itself has spun off output in other media:

• The soundtrack was produced by Tangerine Dream.

• A board game based on the film was published by Mayfair Games. The game was designed by James D. Griffin.

The Keep (1997) is the soundtrack to the movie The Keep (1983) by the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. ... Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. ... Mayfair Games is a publisher of board and roleplaying games in the United States and United Kingdom. ...

External links

• The Keep at the Internet Movie Database
• McKellen, Ian. The Keep: Notes by Ian McKellen.

• A Keep website dedicated to getting a director's cut
• Molasar's Homepage features pictures of the various endings of the film