Les trois jeunes détectives: Le manoir de la terreur

I watched this movie yesterday, it was aired by an Italian network. As an ancient reader of Three Investigators novels...what to say ? Something didn't work, in my opinion. What ? Chiefly the depiction of Pete and Bob characters. In the movie the authors made them muddlers, goofy and for what concerns Pete in particular, too much frightful. In a word, the movie shows comical personas...you don't find anything similar in books, where the humour is 'between the lines' and almost completely limited to Jupe's meetings with Hitchcock. Speaking of Jupe, I don't know, maybe it's just me, but reading novels I never imagined him always so frowned and pensive. Besides these considerations, the movie is not bad at all and can be viewed, but surely it will be enjoyed, as it was already remarked, more by young viewers than old readers.

There is a question mark after the title of my review above, and with good reason.

The movie was well filmed, looked quite professional with nice takes and good camera-work. But everyone loves a good story and good acting. This is where the Investigators fall short.

While watching the movie, I was reminded of those old family movies we used to see in the 60's and 70's, you know the kind? With an implausible plot, poor lines, studied expressions and gestures, and the eternal ever-so-predictable story outcomes. Still, you watch because, maybe, you're bored, or have nothing else to do, or you like to perceive the scenes unfolding and be able to say "I knew that!" This is just that kind of movie. Judging from the cheesy, infantile plot, it seems it was made mainly for the very young viewers, maybe preteens who are still not old enough to piece a basic plot together and make solid decisions. So, they just watch, not to understand really, but just to see what happens next. I wonder, however, if this last remark holds much truth, because I am a drama teacher and coach, and I see many of my 6, 7 or 8 year-olds with minds that work much faster than what is implied in this movie. There were several scenes where you'd have to be either really young, or a partial moron, not to figure out.

These teen "Investigators", then, come up with the most mind-bending solutions to puzzles without too many apparent clues, drawing post-007 conclusions from thin air. "Terror Castle" was no castle and there was no terror in it, other than the creepy environs and Gothic atmosphere. The story wants to portray some kind of 'paranormal' experts and 'crime detectives'; the only thing I found 'paranormal' was these youngsters playing a potentially 'dangerous' game of 'mom and pop heroes' in bad taste.

What the "scary" Sheriff was needed for on those abandoned grounds was not explained, nor why his daughter was fascinated with reincarnation, and what she was doing in the "castle" to begin with. Everything they seemed to need to carry out their quest seemed to either pop into view, or 'magically' appeared in their backpacks. After a while of this, you start wondering if there's something you need to get done to get away, or if you should just fall asleep.

It wasn't awful, but I won't give this one more than a '3'. Your mileage might differ, but if you watch it, see if you don't agree this one is best left in the 'forgettable' bin.

Jupiter has a surprise birthday party given by his relatives at his junkyard meeting place of the boys who investigate, Jupiter the leader, Pete and Bob.

The relatives bring a cake, he does not like this. His parents died around his birthday years ago in an accident. A clown that no one invited grabs a video, drops it in liquid and runs out. The tape is partially destroyed but Jupiter sees his mother and father on the tape. They were investigators. He did not know that and they died 2 days after that tape was made. They give clues about a man they were investigating Steven Terrill. Jupiter intends to find out what happened.

The 3 investigators travel to land near where his parents talked about on the tape. They were investigating Steven Terrill and this was his "terror" castle. The kids find Terrill was skilled at what he did. There are amazing things the movie creators made work in this movie.

The owner used steam heat to run the things he created. A elevator, lights, fireplace, moving shelves and more. The story is very scary at times. The kids go into Terror Castle and meet Caroline who thinks she is psychic and believes in ghosts. The boys don't know what to make of her. The girl's father is a Sheriff and does not like these kids. Later Caroline helps them.

A couple of things I did not like about this movie was the inflation of physic stuff, ghost and curses. Also the scary scene with running, darkness and background stuff in the dark just lasted too long.

In the end the the belief in ghost in the goings on in the castle are put to rest until they hear a suspicious noise at their meeting place but you might say the psychic stuff and the ghost end up dead and buried.

The story has a nice ending.

This was my absolute favorite of the Alfred Hitchcock and the 3 investigators series - the book is a fantastic, I actually picked up a used copy a few years ago just to re-read one of my childhood favorites.

The movie does not do justice to the book - While I thought the character actors/actresses were great, the acting of the sheriff left something to be desired -

I also hated to see the movie re-written to have the destruction of this terrific castle at the end - but the sets were great - I loved seeing the way the castle was designed.

Hopefully we will see more of the 3 investigators series, with better writing, and more attention to the other minor roles, with better acting and lines.

Reading earlier reviews I deduce that "T3I and the Secret of Terror Castle" does not meet their expectation. We easily understood that because this movie is really targeted to adolescent and below. If I was that age I would probably truly enjoy the movie but only if I haven't read the book yet. Kids would easily enjoy this movie because it's cool enough, such as the castle.

I was afraid to watch this movie for the reason that it would tarnish my good memory of Three Investigators and it prove to be true. When I was reading the book I always feel fascinated, the location, the characters it seems just magical. Watching the movie, it seems that it is a different world from the one in the book.

As I said that it would entertain many kids which just watching it now and never had reading the book before, we adults that enticed to watch it in which we demand something else than those kids will be disappointed. We adults hope to see interesting and eccentric characters and dialogs, that cool accents from Jupiter Jones, more peculiar music soundtrack, and more magical-feel but normal-looking towns would not get what we want. We won't even entertained by the case which is the one most interesting thing why we want to read the next novel.

For young men don't miss this one for it is really rare this kind of movie around: Kids Detective that investigate peculiar case without an element of Action in which nowadays detective movie would always combined.