Vamp or Not? The Keep

This film, directed by Michael Mann and released in 1983, often finds itself linked into the vampire genre - though ostensibly much of that is due to the novel by F Paul Wilson, on which it is based. Having not read the novel I look at this without such pre-conceptions and, to be honest, come out of the experience still a little unsure.

Part of the problem is that the film is set at the Dinu Pass, in the Carpathian Alps and, thanks to Stoker, the Carpathians have become synonymous with vampires. I have read it suggested that this is an exploration of the ‘truth’ behind the vampire myth - though the film does not say as much. The year is 1941 and a group of German soldiers are sent to a village beneath a giant keep in order to hold the pass.

The leader of the Germans is Captain Klaus Woermann (Jürgen Prochnow) and he notices an oddness about the keep straight away. Inside the keep, embedded in the walls, are 108 nickel crosses - actually Tau crosses. He questions the caretaker Alexandru (William Morgan Sheppard) who does not know the owners of the keep, he and his forefathers have simply always been the caretakers. Woermann has noticed that the keep seems to be built backwards, with large stones used on the inner construction and smaller stones on the outer construction – as though it were built to keep something in rather than something out. Alexandru is also vague about who built the keep, perhaps Turks or perhaps Walachian warlords.

The caretaker does get somewhat upset when a soldier tries to remove a cross, saying that they must never be touched. The soldier believed it was silver and hid other treasures. Having earned guard duty for his misdemeanour the soldier notices that one of the crosses seems to glow in the night and calls in one of his mates. They try to prise out the cross and the block it is embedded into shifts, revealing a passage. The soldier climbs in and sees another cross ahead. Suddenly the block with the second cross, and he, are sucked forward. Beyond the second cross is a chasm with strange architecture at the bottom, essentially a huge cave. Cue flashing lights and strange wind and lo, we have a dead soldier. As this happens a man, Glaeken Trismegestus (Scott Glann), awakes in Greece and his eyes shine, he heads to Romania.

With the keep's protection broken five soldiers are dead and Woermann has requested relocation. This is denied and a SS troop are sent as relief headed by Major Kaempffer (Gabriel Byrne). The difference between the German troops and the Nazis are immediately apparent. Kaempffer blames partisans for the deaths, rounds up the villagers and has three men executed at random. He then takes five hostages and informs the villagers that if another German dies they will be executed. The body of the latest dead soldier is found and writing is on the wall by the body. Unable to read it, the village priest Fathe Fonescu (Robert Prosky) suggests that Dr Theodore Cuza (Ian McKellan) might be able to translate. He and his daughter Eva (Alberta Watson) are Jews, and are in a resettlement depot. They are brought to the keep and Cuza translates the words as “I will be free”, written in a 500 year dead language.

But is it vampire? The creature - for want of a better word - is credited with the name Molasar (Michael Carter) and starts off as an energy cloud, rushing along the corridors like a wind and, I guess, acting like a highly motivated vampiric mist – at a push. That said it could just be an energy cloud.

There is an attempted rape of Eva by a pair of German soldiers and Molasar rescues her, killing the soldiers and then carrying her back to her father. At this point he seems like an indistinct red glowy thing, vaguely humanoid, within the cloud. It seems the more he kills, by stealing their lives, the more reformed he becomes. He manages to make a deal with Cuza, which basically says if the old, wheelchair bound man takes an amulet away from the keep he will kill the soldiers in black (the SS) and their leaders. To achieve this he cures Cuza of his debilitating illness by laying on a neon energy type hand. Now vampires are not known for curing illness.

Later we see Molasar and he is essentially built up to muscle and actually looks quite like a folklore golem, though he clearly isn’t one. This effect is even more clear when we see him whole.

We also need to look at the character Glaeken, who is not human. It becomes apparent that he was the one who trapped Molasar and it also becomes apparent that for one to die they both must, cancelling each other out. As well as the glowing eyes I mentioned, Glaeken also bleeds glowing green and more interestingly, in a quite understated scene, we see he has no reflection.

Molasar kills by feeding. It seems that he sucks the life out of his victims and we see this as energy sucked from the eyes. This feeding seems to be reconstituting him. The victims appeared charred and one’s head explodes. We have seen energy sucking vampires before and yet it is not necessarily exclusively a vampire trait. Part of the problem is that the film does not deign to tell us what these two creatures are.

Sunlight does not appear to be an issue, though Molasar attacks at night. We do have the use of the Tau crosses. The crosses seem tied into the amulet or pendent that keeps the creature trapped and they do not seem to be that effective on their own, though the removal of one allowed him into the keep proper. We see Kaempffer use a standard cross as a ward and it fails, though this is perhaps because he is as evil as the creature himself. Interestingly the tau cross often represents a gateway, though in this case it seems more of a locking of a gateway.

The film itself is dreamy and quite atmospheric, though the special effects (particularly Molasar) are a bit rubbery. I was unconvinced by McKellan, who sounded less like a Romanian Jew and more like a native New Yorker. I should also mention the Tangerine Dream soundtrack. I do quite like Tangerine Dream but the electronic stylings were intrusive and didn’t really fit the mood/period of the film.

Vampire wise I am unconvinced, but the film does have a lot of genre interest from the derivatives it uses and there is an argument around energy vampire. A flawed film that could do with a remake, which perhaps tells us exactly what the thing is meant to be.

The imdb page is here.