Die Drei ??? - Erbe des Drachen (4 Stars)

The characters ??? in the title are pronounced "Fragezeichen", i.e. "question marks". The title of this German film is literally translated into English as "The Three Question Marks – The Legacy of the Dragon". If the film is released in America, it's likely that it will be called "The Three Detectives". The question marks come from the business card that the three youngsters hand out to potential customers.

This fancy business card translates as:

So who are the three detectives? They're the subject of one of the world's largest series of children's books. So far 223 books have appeared in the series. The first ten books were written by the American author Robert Arthur from 1964 to 1969 and achieved great popularity among young readers. After his death the publishing company Random House wanted to continue the series, so they commissioned various authors to write stories. In 1990, after 58 books, Random House announced that the series wouldn't be continued. The German publisher Kosmos, which had previously translated the books into German, bought the rights to the series. This led to the unusual situation that the first 58 books were written in English, but the following books have all been written in German.

The American books were written at the rate of two or three a year. Kosmos increased the rate to six books per year from 1993 onwards. The books are commissioned to various authors, so the books appear with alternating authors. Kosmos has refused to number the books, because they're all standalone stories that can be read in any order, but fans have compiled their unofficial numbers. As any collector knows, if there are 223 items in a series they have to be numbered to put them in the right order on the bookshelf.

The books are kept relatively short, between 150 and 200 pages. They're recommended for readers from 10 upwards. More than 16 million copies have been sold in Germany alone, but they're more popular as audio books, of which 45 million copies have been sold.

I've never been a friend of audio books. Books are for reading, not for listening to. I suppose it's a symptom of today's teenagers that they're too lazy to read and would rather listen to a story.

The three ageless detectives live in Rocky Beach, California, a fictional town near Los Angeles. Justus lives in a trailer with his uncle. The other two live with their parents. Their ages are never explicitly stated, but among their fans there's a consensus that they're about 13 years old. 

After that long introduction, I'll only say a few words about the film itself. Justus' father is given a job doing special effects for a new Hollywood film called "Dracula Rising". The film will be made on location at Castle Piatra, the home of Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for Dracula. Justus, Peter and Bob take jobs as interns, and they all travel to Romania.

The castle's current owner, Countess Cordina, welcomes the film crew and actors into her home. A lot of the dialogue is in Romanian, which annoyed me. The film could at least have provided German subtitles. But all is not as it seems. The Countess's brother mysteriously disappeared 50 years ago. There was a secret society that met in the castle, a society that has supposedly disbanded, but she suspects that it still exists. And there are rumours of treasure, a giant ruby that belonged to Vlad, which people have been seeking for hundreds of years.

The three detectives, or whatever you want to call them, get involved in conspiracies in the castle. Are there supernatural forces at work? They argue among themselves about the existence of vampires and zombies. The castle's staff definitely look scary, especially the housekeeper who walks the corridors at night with his vicious guard dog.

The film has an age certificate of 6. It's a close call, in my opinion. There are jump scares at various points which I don't consider suitable for young children. My grandson Oliver, who's exactly 6, gripped my arm a few times when he was scared. But in the end he enjoyed the film. I was happy to see that the cinema was more than half full.