"The Keep," 1983's Almost Classic
Signing up for the email list of the Trylon Microcinema is one of the best things I've ever done. A Minneapolis institution, the 90 seat movie theatre is known for showing obscure and rare film prints. But, even as familiar as I am with the Trylon, I was gobsmacked to see that they were showing 1983's "The Keep" on the big screen.
The Trylon is in Longfellow, close to a lot of my other favorite spots, like Dreamhaven books and the chatterbox pub. It's a cash-only kind of place, with $3 sodas and $5 large popcorns, and they still give you little blue paper tickets. Annika and I showed up about 15 minutes early and managed to find good seats in the theatre full of film bros, and everyone chatted through some vintage Japanese horror trailers and the iconic John Waters Don't (;)) Smoke in the Theatre ad.
The Keep is one of my favorite movies. It has beautiful sets, incredible pre-cgi special effects, and a unique visual style that sticks in your brain. But, I think one of the reasons I love it so much is that I am a fan of the book, and my memory fills in the context that is woefully missing in at least 2/3rds of the 96 minute released cut. This movie was a notorious victim of the cutting room floor, trimmed from an (admittedly overlong) first cut of 210 minutes down to the theatrical release time, losing almost two hours of content. As a result, there are jarring cuts and timelines that make very little sense. Also, this move has some of the most inconsistent sound editing I've ever encountered, with the dialog often drowned out by foley effects or the (incredible) score by Tangerine Dream.
"The Keep" follows a squad of Nazi soldiers in the Romanian Carpathian Alps, assigned to guard a remote mountain pass. They set up a perimeter using the eponymous keep as a base of operations. The keep is a forboding, slate-grey structure that looms over the rural village that it flanks, otherworldly and brutal. They march into the fog-wreathed interior and find it lined by silver crosses that- well, I won't go much further. The rest of the plot is pretty mangled, and honestly, if you're curious I would highly reccomend the book by F. Paul Wilson. It's an underlooked masterpiece of weird horror that is one of my perennial favorite reads.
The true strength of the movie is in the visuals. The sets are nothing short of magnificent, and the creature designs are imagninative and well-executed. The first third of the movie in particular manages to give a really impressive sense of scale, the walls of the keep seem endless, and one shot zooms out on a soldier discovering a cavern until you realize that he has stumbled into something unfathomably massive.
The movie was a fun watch, flaws and all, and the Trylon remains one of my favorite spots in the Twin Cities. It was a perfect September night, and Annika and I stopped by the Chatterbox pub after the movie to dissect the tropes and trials of "The Keep." We split some fries and had a couple drinks, I had a lovely Oktoberfest from Toppling Goliath brewery, and we headed home as a September chill settled over the city. 6/10 movie, 10/10 night.