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.
Directed by Michael Mann
nazi
ss (nazi schutzstaffel)
demon
dark fantasy
Rank
#44 in 1983·#6667 overall
Trailer
IMDB
N/A
Letterboxd
2.9 / 5
Where to Watch
Cast
Scott Glenn
Glaeken Trismegestus
Alberta Watson
Eva Cuza
Jürgen Prochnow
Captain Klaus Woermann
Robert Prosky
Father Mihail Fonescu
Gabriel Byrne
Major Kaempffer
Ian McKellen
Dr. Theodore Cuza
William Morgan Sheppard
Alexandru
Royston Tickner
Tomescu
Michael Carter
Radu Molasar
John Vine
Lutz
Wolf Kahler
S.S. Adjutant
Rosalie Crutchley
Josefa
Crew
Michael Mann
Director
Michael Mann
Screenplay
Edgar Froese
Original Music Composer
Christopher Franke
Original Music Composer
Johannes Schmölling
Original Music Composer
Alex Thomson
Director of Photography
Gene Kirkwood
Producer
Hawk Koch
Producer
F. Paul Wilson
Novel
Noel Davis
Casting
Bonnie Timmermann
Casting
Nick Allder
Special Effects Supervisor
Popular Reviews
112 reviews
John Appenzeller
5.0★ · 03/24/26
An unfortunate film. Big potential ruined by studios. Chopping out over half the runtime(about 120 minutes!) is criminal
An unfortunate film. Big potential ruined by studios. Chopping out over half the runtime(about 120 minutes!) is criminal
Lil
3.0★ · 02/09/26
Idk, it’s someone’s favorite. Not mine but you know
Idk, it’s someone’s favorite. Not mine but you know
pat
6.0★ · 01/10/26
There so much amazing work here that the 3+ hr long cut may very well have been a masterpiece
There so much amazing work here that the 3+ hr long cut may very well have been a masterpiece
Raven
7.0★ · 12/04/25
not much but nice to kill time
not much but nice to kill time
Evan
6.0★ · 11/14/25
The keep is definitely Michael manns most weird and ambitious attempt with that said it doesn’t really do anything for me. The creature stuff is cool and is enjoyable but that’s really about it and that’s mainly just the third act. The first 30mins were only used to set up characters and kinda what’s going on which would normally be fine but for how short of a runtime this has it takes up a lot of the movie to the point where I was sat there waiting for something to happen but I had to wait another 30mins for that to happen. Overall I respect the ambition but maybe he made this to early in his career as this really didn’t hit like it could have as the premise is actually quite interesting.
The keep is definitely Michael manns most weird and ambitious attempt with that said it doesn’t really do anything for me. The creature stuff is cool and is enjoyable but that’s really about it and that’s mainly just the third act. The first 30mins were only used to set up characters and kinda what’s going on which would normally be fine but for how short of a runtime this has it takes up a lot of the movie to the point where I was sat there waiting for something to happen but I had to wait another 30mins for that to happen. Overall I respect the ambition but maybe he made this to early in his career as this really didn’t hit like it could have as the premise is actually quite interesting.
