The Keep

The Keep is a film directed by Michael Mann. It was made in 1983. The story centers around an ancient keep (as in the structure) in a mountain pass in Romania during World War II. A group of Nazi troops are sent to occupy the Keep in order to guard the pass. One of them, however, accidentally wakes an ancient evil inside the Keep, which begins to kill soldiers. Eventually, two local Jews are brought in - a man and his daughter - and the daughter is threatened in order to force the father to translate Hebraic documents which might offer a clue as to the nature of the beast. Unknowst to the Nazis, the creature is a golem; a being raised from the ground in a Hebrew ritual. The father promises his daughter to the creature in a rage for revenge, if it will kill all the Nazis present.

Far away, in another land, an ancient protector has felt the creature awaken, and begins his journey back...

A fun flick. Stars Scott Glenn, Gabriel Byrne, Jurgen Prochnow, Ian Mckellan and W. Morgan Sheppard among others.

Thanks IMDB!

Wow! Thanks Li Kao! I didn't know that, and will now have to seek out the books...

"The Keep" is a novel written by F. Paul Wilson and published in 1981 which was later transmogrified into a film by Michael Mann (as The Custodian has provided in his writeup). This storyline of this novel is the first in a chain that Wilson refers to as The Adversary Cycle. These novels also intertwine with his Repairman Jack series at points ("The Tomb" being the first of these). This is the "origin" story (at least in the modern timeframe) for Rasalom, the primordial evil entity that serves as the antagonist.

To get a feel for how the novel and the movie relate, think of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (by Philip K. Dick) vs. "Blade Runner." There are just enough similarities to keep that feeling of deja vu without actually bothering to keep the same plot. Tangerine Dream provide the musical score for the film version.

"The Keep" was republished in paperback format in March of 2000.