MovieChat Forums > The Keep (1983) Discussion > Startlingly Bad in Every Respect

Startlingly Bad in Every Respect

posted 15 years ago by boyd1955
13 replies | jump to latest

There is one good thing in this whole film and that is the music that plays over the opening titles ... After that it is absolutely unbelievably bad in every respect
Ian Mc Kellan's acting is just jaw droopingly awful ... He is so wrong for the role it makes me think whoever cast this needs shooting and the character himself is stupid beyond belief ... There is no way Mann couldn't see how bad this was on paper ... It is nonsense and it must have read really badly
The effects are stunningly bad even for when this film was made ... Blue and pink neon ... Yeah right
So the only reason to watch this stinker is for a laugh
There may be a germ of a good idea buried in there somewhere ... But Mann can say what he wants ... This must have looked like sewage on paper ... And there is no way he could of missed Mc Kellans huge slice of ham slopping about in front of the camera
An abomination

[–] NateWatchesCoolMovies 15 years ago

go away troll, this movie may have its flaws
but it's still a haunting, mystical experience not to be forgotten.
we don't need your negativity here.

"Animals are beasts, but Men are Monsters..."

[–] boyd1955 14 years ago

Yeah right ... As mystical as my toilet

[–] ConstructionSiteHackman 14 years ago

I don't know about haunting, but it was *beep* amazing looking and sounding. Loved it. I liked that it didn't have any clear purpose and lets the viewer fill in some stuff themselves, not holding your hand and telling you what to think. Just watched it, def a new favorite. Much better than any of the vapid piffle I've been sitting through lately.

[–] blunderbus 14 years ago

You serious?

I watched this nearly 30 years ago. Christ it sucked.
I tried, repeat, tried re-watching it again a decade later to see if it had gotten better. I did so because I had a friend come to me and told me he'd just watched great movie. I handed him the book. I tried then to watch it again. Just to see if time had changed my opinion. It didn't. It was actually worse than I remembered. But my friend, upon reading it returned the book and he then claimed that 'no, he was wrong, the movie DID suck, didn't it? True story.
Yeah, it is haunting all right. A bloody nightmare that you cannot scrub off your brain.
A movie so bad, that the author of the absolutely splendid book, wrote the short story 'Cuts' because of it. In the story an author gets his revenge on the people that made a travesty of a movie about his book.
This movie is why F. Paul Wilson has resisted any other movies be made of his books. Which is a shame. We could have had Repairman Jack on film 20 years ago if not for this film.
Fie! Fie I say!

[–] jayloveserin 14 years ago

I agree. This movie was just dire in almost every aspect, McK's acting was awful, most of the character development made no sense with any of the main actors, the special effects were laughable and the story itself seemed contrived and extremely linear. No suspense, no atmosphere (apart from TD's usual spacy far out electro new age pap soundtrack fare) in fact... I can't think of one redeeming feature for this movie.

I watched this because it was part of Manns folio of work, and I now understand why no one has ever recommended this movie to me. It's a huge turkey, easily one of his worst films.

And to any one saying you have to read the book to understand the movie/premise/background/characters and how fantastic the story is: that means the movie has FAILED, any way you look at it.

[–] zarathustra2k1 14 years ago

You should get back you your "Fans of Uwe Boll, Furrydom 'n' Nambla" forum, obvious troll...

I have opinions of my own, but I don't always agree with them - George Bush

[–] jayloveserin 14 years ago

I'm not a fan of Uwe Boll at all, furrydom or 'nambla'.
You need to grow up if you cannot handle other peoples opinions.

[–] blunderbus 14 years ago

It should be noted, if you liked the book at all, you'd hate this horrid bit of celluloid even more. Not less.
Wilson hated it so much he wrote the short story "cuts" because of it. Cannot say I blame him. Turning Molasar into a shambling monster instead of the urbane, distilled evil genius was terrible to watch.

[–] jayloveserin 14 years ago

I'll definately give the original story a try one day. The idea itself was not overtly bad and had interesting ideas, just the mess of the movie ruined it I guess.

[–] clenchedbrain 14 years ago

I agree it's pretty flawed, McKellen was hammy, and it's a bit of a mess generally, but I still liked it. I certainly don't love it, though, and would only buy a blu-ray if it was fairly cheap. It does have a kind of haunting quality, and strangely appealing atmosphere. I love the soundtrack, too, and don't find it at all incongruous.
The comments on this board seem to be a good illustration of the fact that it is often something very hard to pin down, or even put into words, what it is about a film that makes it special to you; but if you dislike a film, it's very easy to point out its flaws.

Apparently during the production Mann was a bit of a nightmare to work with, and re-cut the film around the music he wanted to use - possibly the TD stuff he used without consulting them. He was obviously a big fan of them at the time, but it sounds like a recipe for disaster. He sounds like one of those off-the-rails auteurs - like Coppola shooting Apocalypse Now, but with a bit less focus.

They are interviewing crew members now, or imminently, so the ball is definitely rolling on the long-awaited reissue. Whether this will come to fruition I don't know, but it sounds like it's a serious endeavour. Maybe we will get a re-cut, extended version, too.

[–] oyster_without_soul 12 years ago

It starts like a great movie but it ends like a not so great movie. A cinematic let down with badly mixed music, pseudo philosophical rumblings and less than great character development slowly unfolds.

[–] Klein_Returns 12 years ago

I agree with most people here that this movie was awful.

[–] willygordon789 12 years ago

Have to agree, a total stinker, no feeling of suspense or drama at all, just crappy music, that you would need to be on something, to enjoy. couldn't even watch it all, turned it off as it was actually *beep* depressing watching such rubbish.