This movie felt a fever dream throughout. Reading about the production and how this was a 210 minute movie cut down into 95 minutes that wasn't edited by Michael Mann, I can see why. It is quite disappointing as there are some really interesting elements.

The Nazis seize an ancient Romanian fortress and are predictably eliminated by something potentially more powerful.

This is weird, but not weird for weirdness sake. It's undoubtedly a tale of an evil having to deal with another evil, but everything feels so distant and unfamiliar. I don't want to make light of this because it's not a B-movie or anything. It is deadly serious. But it's so hard to like because its characters are cutouts of cliched evil. There's just no one to like in "The Keep". I do like the mystery of the fortress but it's not played up enough. The ancient evil within it is threatening but its depiction is underwhelming. The special effects are mired in '80's tackiness.

This is not a movie that I didn't care for, I just don't know how to grasp what its supposed to be. Normally that's an okay thing, but I thought I was watching a potential Halloween horror and my expectations were misplaced.

Michael "O. Cmon" Mann should've called this movie The Keep Trying because this ain't it, chief.

An all-star cast (Gabriel Byrne, Scott Glenn, Ian McKellen) act like this silly script is Shakespeare while impractical special effects distract from occasional lapses of decent cinematography.

The best thing about it remains the perfectly preserved time capsule soundtrack. Is it really an 80s film if Tangerine Dream didn't do the music?

What an odd, odd movie. Especially coming after Thief, which is out of the gate a stone cold classic, to switch gears and do a horror that has so much wasted potential is baffling. Some of the effects in this were super cool. Like the formation of the monster, very very cool. And so many familiar faces! But a miss. I look forward to hearing the story behind it on next week's Blank Check.

Feels very dated. There were some interesting ideas but also a lot of weird stuff. The soundtrack was ok but not as good as Thief. I wouldn’t recommend unless you are trying to see all of Michael Mann’s movies.

This film hasn't aged particularly well but to be honest I'm not sure I'd have enjoyed it any more back in 1983. Interesting camerawork and special effects to say the least but there are some good acting performances amongst the more dodgy ones. It's The Keep but it's not a keeper.

It had potential but they screwed it up! :/