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Lost Place 3D

Lost Place 3D

Deutschland 2013 - with François Goeske, Josefine Preuß, Jytte-Merle Böhrnsen, Pit Bukowski ...

The Frankfurt-Tipp rating:

Movie info

Genre:Mystery, Thriller
Direction:Thorsten Klein
Cinema release:19.09.2013
Production country:Deutschland 2013
Running time:Approx. 101 min.
Rated:From 12 years
Web page:www.lost-place.com

It was supposed to be just an exciting geocache trip that Daniel (François Goeske) and Elli (Jytte-Merle Böhrnsen) arranged to meet in a chat room. Together with Daniel's buddy Thomas (Pit Bukowski) and Elli's less than enthusiastic girlfriend Jessi (Josefine Preuß), the two set off for the abandoned site of an American military base in the middle of the Palatinate Forest. Near a spookily empty campsite they actually find the geocache box they were looking for, but in it there are only a few hash cookies. Against all reason, first Thomas and Elli, then Daniel, start to eat the cookies. But a simple drug intoxication can't explain what happens to them: Jessi has a strange seizure and a mysterious stranger in a radiation suit shows up, telling the teens about secret experiments from the 1980s that used radio technology to influence the human brain. What sounds like a wild conspiracy theory soon turns into a hopeless fight for survival for the four.

With Lost Place, director Thorsten Klein ventures into a German mystery thriller with a slight horror twist. It's always absolutely commendable when German filmmakers try their hand at works that don't belong to the genres preferred in this country (family drama, romantic comedy, coming to terms with the past). Especially the genre of the fantastic film, to which horror and mystery can definitely be counted, is treated very stepmotherly in Germany. Therefore, Klein already deserves great praise for trying his hand at this subject.

With an old military installation in the middle of the Palatinate Forest, a great location has been found that is unusual and extremely atmospheric. Thanks to the very good camerawork and a coherent set, the film succeeds through this location alone to build up an engaging and suspenseful mood, from which the story can still benefit, especially at the beginning. Because even though the story is based on true events and various interesting conspiracy theories, its overall structure is very conventional and offers little that is really new. Especially with regard to the character sketches, the makers repeatedly use clichés that are far too well-trodden. The patter Thomas is obviously supposed to lighten up the whole thing a bit humorously, but unfortunately he's nothing more than a poor man's Stifler. And also Jessi, played by a criminally underacting Josefine Preuß, is a very stenciled bitch who really doesn't show any interesting facets.

This makes it difficult for the viewer to be even remotely interested in the fate of the four young geocachers. The fact that they behave extremely stupid again and again following the rules of the genre doesn't really make things easier. But all this could be forgiven, if the story would be thrilling and exciting until the end. But that's unfortunately not the case. After a successful opening the events get more and more confused and absurd from minute to minute. After the logic completely leaves at the latest halfway through the running time, the story also loses its clearly recognizable structure. Sure, mystery movies should generally have something mysterious, inexplicable about them. But a little more sense and dramaturgical cohesion would certainly have been beneficial.

Also, the decision to shoot the film in 3D doesn't really prove beneficial. Again, the whole thing works quite well at the beginning, but at the latest when it goes inside the mysterious facility, it becomes clear once again that 3D is simply not made for dark scenes.

As good as the intentions of the creators were, as hard as the actors are and as great as the spooky atmosphere of the facility in the Palatinate Forest is, Lost Place can not be called really successful by any stretch of the imagination. The weak points are too obvious, burying many of the good aspects underneath. There are indeed far worse genre works - not only from Germany, but especially from the USA or England. But there are also many much better ones, for which you should better save the entrance fee. For an entertaining home cinema evening quite okay, for a by 3D even more expensive cinema visit, the audience is simply offered too little really worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp

Media:

  • Lost Place 3D
  • Lost Place 3D
  • Lost Place 3D
  • Lost Place 3D
  • Lost Place 3D
  • Lost Place 3D
Cinema trailer for the movie "Lost Place 3D (Deutschland 2013)"
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