kurt wiley At times, THE KEEP is very atmospheric, foreboding and suspenseful, with solid acting by Ian McKellen and Jurgen Prochnow. Unfortunately, THE KEEP was a troubled production (its story should emerge in a KEEP documentary to be released in 2017). In short, weather conditions were difficult, Mann kept re-visualizing the film (especially its primary villain) during production, and worst of all, his head Effects expert, Wally Veevers, died during early post-production, leaving a number of key effect scenes unfinished. Paramount then refused further production monies, time for proper sound mixing, and edited the rough film's 210 minutes down to a "theater-friendly" 96 minutes, resulting in numerous plot holes. Paramount's brief theater release was followed by home video on VHS, but in part due to rights issues over the music (a moody yet haunting score by Tangerine Dream) has kept THE KEEP from an official Paramount DVD release. In recent interviews (also part of the upcoming documentary), Michael Mann showed little interest in revitalizing this film.

PimpinAinttEasy Dear Michael Mann, it is really sad that the studio messed up your film. I was wondering why more space was not given to the death of the soldiers. We are only shown the deaths of the first two soldiers. But more keep dying and I got to know about this through the exchanges between the top brass of Nazis. Then I read about the studio interference and realized the whole film was badly cut. It is a shame because the film is a visual treat. The long shot of the Keep's entrance, the tracking shots of the soldiers running through the Keep's corridors with the cross shining in the background and the shots of the foggy village were beautiful and unlike anything I have seen for a horror film. The background score by Tangerine Dream during the entry of the Nazis into the village might have inspired the score for Sicario. It was a horror film with a large canvas not unlike The Shining or Apocalypse Now. There were aspects of the film which were quite cheesy. Like Robert Prosky's get up and his exchanges with Ian Mckellen. And the special effects were nothing to write home about. I hope you release the three hour director's cut, Michael. Best Regards, Pimpin. (6/10)

chaveloman This movie was quite possibly one of the worst films I have ever seen in my lifetime. The beginning scene takes way too long to get into. It seems like it was added only to bring suspense to the film but it failed to do even that. The music wasn't suspenseful even in the slightest and the shot of the German commander smoking his cigarette served no purpose to the story. The first few minutes watching it made me think "oh my god I have to push myself through this for film class?" The story itself also wasn't grabbing to the viewer, why would keep yourself and your men in the keep if you're all dying? Also the movie graphics where just the worst, even for that time. Molsar looked like they recycled the figurine of Godzilla, put Christmas lights in it, and added wheels, there was no effort to make the creatures realistic in anyway shape or form. I'd give this a double thumbs down, triple if I had another set of fingers. It's no wonder this movie lost 50% of what was invested into it.

duerden60 I tried to like this strange movie. Looking more like a pantomime set rather than a film set, plus the T.Dream music that for me did not help but was intrusive and at times grated. There was a better movie in there somewhere, Maybe M.Mann's original cut? Sir Ian's accent was anything but Eastern European, more American than anything. I notice on his own site he says the director asked him to drop the Rumanian accent for a Chicago one, if true it sounds strange to say the least. The only actor who seemed believable to me was Jurgen Prochnow, Gabriel Byrne doing pretty much as every other actor doing the sadistic Nazi act does with the exception of the brilliant Christoph Waltz in Tarantino's 'Inglourious Basterds' I thought the monster quite good until 'it' opened it's mouth, it spoke with a better accent than Ian Mckellen. In my view this 'mish mash' was a missed opportunity.