"Burg Schreckenstein" or "Castle Schreckenstein" is a new German movie (2016 release) that runs for slightly over 1.5 hours and was directed by Ralf Huettner, a German filmmaker who has worked in the industry for over three decades. It is based on a children's book by Oliver Hassencamp and tells us the story of Stephan, a boy who has to go to a boarding school after his mother does not have the time to take care of him properly. This boarding school is actually a boys-only boarding school and it is also a castle, namely the one mentioned in the title. For almost the first half, the film is about the boy's integration with the other kids as well as a girls boarding school nearby and the two constantly playing pranks on each other. It is slightly embarrassing to see how they try to keep it harmless etc with mentions such as that the most important chamber did not show any signs of damage when a water prank goes wrong or that the prank itself was not the reason the girls were moved, but what was discovered by the construction company afterward, so it was almost a good thing.
The cast includes actors like Henning Baum and Jana Pallaske and these two are prime example of actors with a good deal of charisma, but perhaps not the greatest range. Add to that Sophie Rois, who has probably the showiest performance from the bunch, and German late night show host Harald Schmidt, who I am a great fan of and who was for me the main reason to watch this one we have here. But even if he is somewhat fun in his scenes, the movie does not really fulfill any standards of quality filmmaking. This especially refers to the child actors and story. The former includes young performers that are pretty bad and hammy in their attempts to be as memorable as possible. This does not include all of them, but quite a handful. Also the lead actor is very forgettable I must say. Apart from that, some of the dialogues (also from the child actors mostly) rang very false and fake in the writers' attempts to have the kids sound as cool as possible. One example would be when they start talking English at the end of each sentence (main language is German of course) or another would be when one of them says something like "Die Firma dankt." when they are given ice cream for free. Cringeworthy stuff. And overall, as a whole, I felt the movie was very forgettable in terms of the plot. This refers to comedy as well as drama unfortunately. One example for the drama would be the constant mentions of "one for all and all for one". It was intended to make an impact in terms of the kids' spirits, but it never really felt believable. Speaking about the young people in the film, it feels quite generic. The new kid, the old leader of the gang that doesn't like him, the nerdy "besserwisser" one etc. There have been many kids films from Germany in the last decade, also many good ones, but this is not one of these. I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
The cast includes actors like Henning Baum and Jana Pallaske and these two are prime example of actors with a good deal of charisma, but perhaps not the greatest range. Add to that Sophie Rois, who has probably the showiest performance from the bunch, and German late night show host Harald Schmidt, who I am a great fan of and who was for me the main reason to watch this one we have here. But even if he is somewhat fun in his scenes, the movie does not really fulfill any standards of quality filmmaking. This especially refers to the child actors and story. The former includes young performers that are pretty bad and hammy in their attempts to be as memorable as possible. This does not include all of them, but quite a handful. Also the lead actor is very forgettable I must say. Apart from that, some of the dialogues (also from the child actors mostly) rang very false and fake in the writers' attempts to have the kids sound as cool as possible. One example would be when they start talking English at the end of each sentence (main language is German of course) or another would be when one of them says something like "Die Firma dankt." when they are given ice cream for free. Cringeworthy stuff. And overall, as a whole, I felt the movie was very forgettable in terms of the plot. This refers to comedy as well as drama unfortunately. One example for the drama would be the constant mentions of "one for all and all for one". It was intended to make an impact in terms of the kids' spirits, but it never really felt believable. Speaking about the young people in the film, it feels quite generic. The new kid, the old leader of the gang that doesn't like him, the nerdy "besserwisser" one etc. There have been many kids films from Germany in the last decade, also many good ones, but this is not one of these. I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
