The Keep – Review

Thunder rolls across the sky as storms flare. In a dark forest below, led by Captain Klaus Woermann (Prochnow), army trucks drive through the rains toward their goal: their new base of operations which they are to protect.

A seer has visions of a small village in the mountains and the trucks driving through it, scaring the local farmers. This is Dinu Pass in Romania, 1941. At the edge of the village is a keep, under a large mountainside.

These are Nazis, and they have been assigned to guard this pass, and this is where they will stay. They grab munitions and supplies and head inside the odd construction to set-up shop. Inside is mysterious, and dark, like a haunted castle. The stone layered keep is not hospitable or warm, and contains a strange caretaker and his sons.

The actual owner of the keep is unknown; however, the villagers tend to it and have been maintaining it for generations. It is no fortress however, with its design as if to keep something in, instead of out. The caretaker warns that no one stays the night. There were no ghosts, and no one has ever died there, but dreams run out any inhabitants.

Good thing these Nazi fucks aren’t afraid. Their bad dreams are their keep already. In they go and settle down, with nothing but good times ahead for all. As the Nazis look for riches to plunder, they go down blocked passages that they likely should not.

The Keep is a truly odd experience which combines World War II and magical shit. Obviously, no one gives as crap about Nazis having bad times, so there is no human connection to a lot of the characters. As they blunder into the keep, we pretty much want them to meet their fates as soon as possible, which relieves a lot of tension, other than what is really going on plot wise.

The budget was small; however, it landed a good cast. Is it a good movie? I mean… it’s unique and it’s an okay experience, especially for Michael Mann or cinema fans, but it’s not a spectacular story. The good actors are only able to do so much with this affair, but it is entirely watchable. It has some nicely done shots, weird effects and features a short runtime.

This was based on a novel, so maybe there are more story details and expository answers hidden in those pages.

It is tough to compare this to very many other films.