Poskanzer.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA (12/19/83)
From: Jef Poskanzer <Poskanzer.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA> I saw the movie on Saturday. Utter trash. Don't bother. I can't even give it a rating because that would cause a floating-point underflow! --- Jef
keithl@vice.UUCP (Keith Lofstrom) (12/21/83)
I read the book by F. Paul Wilson, and agree with Jef Pozkanzer about
it's quality (7 on 0-9 scale).
[Quick recap: German soldiers occupy small keep in 1941 Romania. Evil
being is released, attacks soldiers. Germans call in Jewish(!) historian
to help them (guess who he actually helps). Apocalyptic battle.]
I saw the movie, however, and rate it at 2 on the same scale.
This movie was badly EDITED. There were scenes where the sound was so
poorly mixed the actors couldn't be heard. The lighting was bad for some
scenes (did they ever hear of retakes?). The fragments of the plot
presented might be incomprehensible to someone who hadn't recently read the
book. Some of the special effects were good, and the opening was OK, so
the movie isn't a zero.
The reason was clear at the end; the copyright belongs to a movie
equipment leasing company! I hypothesize that the producers ran out of
money, and the leasing company patched together what had been filmed so
far. Too bad, it could have been a fine film...
--
Keith Lofstrom
uucp: {ucbvax,decvax,chico,pur-ee,cbosg,ihnss}!teklabs!vice!keithl
CSnet: keithl@tek
ARPAnet:keithl.tek@rand-relayPoskanzer.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA (12/23/83)
From: Jef Poskanzer <Poskanzer.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA> THE KEEP. Opens today at theatres and drive-ins everywhere. Based on the novel by F. Paul Wilson, which I just read. The book was real good, and the movie has Jurgen Prochnow (the unterwasserboot Captain from Das Boot) in it, so it can't be all bad. I can give a plot summary of the book, but I haven't seen the movie yet so no guarantees. It takes place in 1941 in the Dinu Pass area of Romania, the middle of the Transylvanian Alps. A small detachment of German soldiers has been ordered to secure the pass and guard it against who knows what. A Russian sneak attack perhaps. They are told to use as their base the Keep, a strange, centuries old stone structure. The walls of the Keep are inlaid with 16,807 cross-like devices, made of nickel and brass. In the middle of the first night, one of the soldiers notices a cross unlike the others - it is made of silver and gold. He fiddles with it, and in no time has succeeded in releasing a nameless, ancient horror which immediately rips his head off. The fun continues for a few days, with one soldier dying each night, until the commander telegraphs his superiors for permission to abandon the Keep. Instead, they sent him an SS major and two squads of einsatzkommandos to combat what they assume is merely local partisans. Hoo hah, will THEY be surprised! The book avoids most of the usual horror-story cliches, has a lot of original and horrifying ideas, and as a bonus, even has a few moments of thigh-slapping humour. For instance, when the von Helsing character (well, there's one cliche it doesn't avoid) talks with the monster for the first time, he thinks he's dealing with a Bram Stoker style vampire so he whips out some garlic. Says the monster, "Give it to me." Munch, munch, munch. "I LOVE garlic." Unfortunately, the romantic sub-plot which starts about half-way through the book is not handled well. Since I've managed to avoid reading any Harlequin Romances so far, I can't really compare it to them, but I would guess it's similar. Don't pay too much attention to this part of the book. Overall, on a scale of 0 to 9, I'd rate the book at 7 big fat Romulan torps. I'll let you know about the movie after I see it. Soon, I hope! --- Jef
rh@mit-eddie.UUCP (Randy Haskins) (01/02/84)
Does anyone have anything GOOD to say about this movie? All the "reviews" or discussions I've seen about it have (about to coin a phrase, watch out...) "panned it to the max." Is there any merit in this film? -- Randwulf (Randy Haskins); Path= genrad!mit-eddie!rh
ralf@druxm.UUCP (01/05/84)
I do have ONE good thing to say about this movie, it wasn't scary! We decided a better name for this movie would have been "The Creep" because of it's incredibly slow pace, it simply crept along. The smoke effect was nice for about the first 15 minutes, after that it got very BORING! and how many times do we have to see it used? Definitely not one of the better movies this year. Ralph W. Brown druxm!ralf
rigney@uokvax.UUCP (01/08/84)
#R:sri-arpa:-1468200:uokvax:3900010:000:548 uokvax!rigney Jan 6 12:31:00 1984 Siskel and Ebert liked the one scene early in it where the German pulls out the cross, and the camera shows him looking through the breach from the inside of the chamber, then the viewpoint pulls far, far back, it seems like miles, until the light from the hole is incredibly tiny, and there is an awesome sense of size and power. They said that compared to what that scene caused you to imagine, the actual creature was laughable. It's too bad, sounds like it could've been a good movie if done properly. Carl ..!ctvax!uokvax!rigney