Pretty Packaging: THE KEEP Cross Replica Limited Edition Is A Keeper

Physical media may be considered a niche market nowadays, but if you're part of that niche, life is rich (or at least you'll need to be...). There is no shortage of great editions available in different formats. Most of my Pretty Packaging 'finds' are from Europe and Asia, with Korea, France and Germany having built a reputation for crazy edition 'pimping'. Recently I added Australia to the list, as distributors like Umbrella and Imprint are releasing some crazy fantastic editions lately.

Case in point: Imprint's Cross Replica Limited Edition 4K-UHD/Blu-ray Combo release of Michael Mann's World War 2 fantasy horror The Keep. The film itself is a star-studded oddity, the butchered remains of a 3-hour epic which Mann finished as writer-director. But he disowned it when Paramount cut it back to 96 minutes. The Keep still has its moments; especially the scene in which the demon Molasar gains a physical form, scored by Tangerine Dream, is fantastic. But at its current length it is almost as weird as, say, Giulio Paradisi's The Visitor.

So color me surprised when someone decided to give this film the ultra-royal treatment. Had they uncovered Mann's original three-hour cut or something? Alas, no. But what you do get is the theatrical version, loads of extras, and a fantastic documentary about what the hell happened on-and-off-set.

I'll go as far as to say that this is the release to beat this year, so far, and I would be very surprised if I don't mention it in my end-of-year overview. Therefore, here is a gallery of pictures of the thing. Click on the edge of the pictures to scroll through them, or at the centre of each to see a bigger version.