Horror History: Michael Mann’s THE KEEP Was Released in Limited Theaters in 1983
Mike Sprague
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On this day in horror history, Paramount Pictures unleashed Michael Mann’s The Keep with Scott Glenn, Gabriel Byrne and Ian McKellen into theaters back in 1983.
Mann wrote and directed the film based on the F. Paul Wilson novel, originally published in 1981. It follows a gaggle of Nazis in World War II Romania who awaken a supernatural evil after setting up camp in an ancient stone fortress.
Paramount extensively cut The Keep. Its original 3.5-hour cut was trimmed to over an hour and a half. They gave the film a limited release in the US. It grossed $4.2M.
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Scott Glenn (Silence of the Lambs) stars with Gabriel Byrne (End of Days) and Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings). Jürgen Prochnow (In the Mouth of Madness) also joins the cast with Robert Prosky (Last Action Hero). Bruce Payne rounds out the cast with W. Morgan Sheppard, Royston Tickner, Michael Carter, and Wolf Kahler.
The Keep is available on YouTube, Amazon Video, and Netflix in the UK and Ireland. But it didn’t hit DVD or Blu-ray in any country until this past January. That said, Paramount Home Video did release the film on Laserdisc and VHS.
Tangerine Dream (Firestarter, Near Dark) composed the score. Due to rights issues, the version currently available on streaming sites sports a different score. The full score is available in the laserdisc and VHS versions of the film.
Mayfair Games produced a The Keep board game was designed by James D. Griffin and a role-playing game adventure based on the film.
Do you dig Michael Mann’s The Keep with Gabriel Byrne and Ian McKellen?
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