The Keep (1983)

1983 is one of those years, for me, that everyone has, where many things from your life revolve around it. A year that, just hearing it, puts images in your head of what you were doing.

Now you can add the one to the right to that list:

I've always wanted to see The Keep, but it always alluded me, now thanks to Netflix, that magical place of all things "need to see it" I finally have.

As I've heard, atmosphere is the name of the game here. The first third of the film has a great buildup. Music, lighting, set design all are top notch for early eighties. The mid-third of the film lags because of the required female lead love interest sex scene. Which might be great in another film, but after the first two red-shirt deaths from " where is the rest of my torso", just slows down the intensity at this point. Ian McKellen's makeup (he plays a man who through disease appears 30 years older than he is) is so good that you need to compare the movie to how he looks now. Scott Glenn plays the quiet hero well. And the demon is well designed. Hard to believe that a movie that has this many know actors and great cinematography has still never made it to DVD yet.