Das Haus der Krokodile (2012) Reviews

• A solid mystery thriller for a younger audience!

  Geschichtenerzaehler2012-10-25

  Victor is a clever young boy. His family recently moved into the old house of their uncle, but he still has to adapt to the strange new environment. His parents have to leave to attend a trade show while he stays behind with his older sisters. Triggered by a disturbing encounter, Victor comes across a 40 year old mystery. A girl named Cäcilie died in the same house under unknown circumstances. She had a secret and Victor becomes obsessed with solving it. But following her pointers is hard, if not dangerous under the eyes of the houses other suspicious inhabitants... To come to a fair judgment of this movie, you have to keep in mind, that it was made for a younger audience. It's only slightly creepy in comparison to mystery thrillers for grown ups, but there's enough tension and mystery to keep you well entertained from the start to the finale. Luckily the tone is not goofy, a trap many children's movies fall into. In fact I have little complains at all. The script is well thought out. There are only a few moments, especially those where Victor tries to explain his observations to adults, that could have been better. I think he should be smart enough to know, how unbelievable his findings are, and he has to back them up with evidence, before anybody will believe him. The young lead actor is able to shoulder the entire movie, which is quite remarkable. I gotta say the entire cast does a great job. The atmosphere is quite tense for the most time and is created with cool, sometimes stunning sets (behold that stairwell) and a score that captures the mood perfectly. Very good, not only for kids!

• Great for all ages

  jsupak2016-10-06

  At first I did not think that I would like it. After the first fifth teen minutes, I was hooked. I really loved it. The was wonderful and great closure. The actors work great with each other. The location was fabulous. The story was very believable. I could not stop watching. I loved the house and time-lined pieces that was added. I love movies that have closure. I would love to be in one of the movies. This is the first time I have seen one of his films and it will not be the last! I have already been looking up more writings from all the writers. I think I am going to look for the original series that was done in Germany as well.

• Sounds so interesting, yet does so little

  Horst_In_Translation2017-01-11

  "Das Haus der Krokodile" or "Victor and the Secret of Crocodile Mansion" is a German movie from 2012, so this one has its 5th anniversary this year. It runs for slightly over 90 minutes and is mostly directed at children in the audience. The writer-director duo here are Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stennert, who collaborated on other projects as well in the past. The original novel is by Helmut Ballot and this one was also the basis for a television mini-series starring Thomas Ohrner back in the 1970s. I have not read the book, so I can only talk about my experience with this movie here and not how close it may be to the literary work. This film is a story full of mystery, maybe to an extent where it is already too much. It is about a mysterious house, mysterious burglars, the mysterious death of a mysterious girl many decades ago, an mysterious old lady, a mysterious book etc. It is very obvious they wanted this film to be different from all the other less serious children's films from the 21st century here in Germany (and there are many), but they may have gone a bit over the top in their attempt to do so. I did not really manage to take the film as seriously as it takes itself. One of the problems was lead actor Kristo Ferkic, who simply wasn't particularly good and as he is in basically every scene that hurts the film a lot. I also did not like that they cast his sisters with him randomly. Family affairs are never a good thing. But that's just subjective opinion. The cast is decent otherwise. Christoph Maria Herbst is solid as usual in a role where he has a mustache, which we really don't see too often on him. Waldemar Kobus was okay as well and made the most of what he had to work with. Gudrun Ritter plays one of the crucial grown-up characters and for that I found her relatively forgettable. Her physique may be memorable, but there could have been a lot more to the character and it somehow shows that she is known mostly today probably for a trashy television format like "Verbotene Liebe". Overall, this was a disappointing film for the most part. The premise here on IMDb sounds really interesting, but the film was not half as interesting and they messed up on several occasions in terms of story-telling and also, very importantly, the suspense factor as well as the final revelation. I give this film a thumbs-down. If you want your kids to see quality films, this is not the one you should go for.