Movie Thoughts: Sniff the Dog and the Haunted Castle (2010)

• Released: November 16, 2010
  
• Directed by: Steven de Jong, Erwin van den Eshof
• Running time: 1 h 25 min
• Rating 2.5/5

Synopsis

Snuf, Tom and Mirjam return in an adventure where they get caught up in a situation with a gang of criminals who are occupying a supposedly haunted castle.

My Thoughts

Okay, so remember in my Movie Thoughts on the second Snuf/Sniff movie how I talked about this movie making some really baffling decisions for the franchise? Here we go.

The first two movies in the Snuf franchise took place in the 1940s during and just after WWII. This third movie has the exact same characters with the exact same relationships...but it takes place in the 2000s. I'm not kidding. And it's not a reboot, it's a continuation. This is the third movie in the franchise, not the start of a new Snuf series. And to make things even more confusing, 99% of the recurring characters have been recast. I think I counted one, maybe two returning actors from the first films here. 

So we get this movie that is a continuation to a story set in the 1940s, but it now takes place in the 2000s with exactly the same characters though nobody looks like how they used to. What. The. Heck. And this movie still has the same director as the first two attached to it, so it's not like a new director decided to take the series in a different more modern direction. It's just De Jong and new director Van den Eshof suddenly deciding the series needs to go in a different route. Without it being a reboot, somehow.

But that aside, this was (so far) definitely the worst out of the Snuf franchise. I liked the first movie quite a bit for the stakes and adventure, movie two really got around to making Mirjam a great character and was decent, and now this movie is...not really. I mean it's not the worst, but damn is this a downgrade.

Aside from the story being set in modern times, it just feels like a downgrade. I didn't care one bit for this boring criminal gang plot. Back when the castle was actually being built up as being haunted at first I was interested, but just like in the previous movie, Sniff the Dog and the Flying Phantom, it turns out that the supernatural elements aren't supernatural at all. It's just some boring criminal gang I couldn't care less about. And of course Tom and Snuf go after them and put themselves in danger. 

Also, what the heck did they do to Mirjam? Remember how in the first two movies she was a strong, outspoken female character who took no shit from anyone? She wasn't as ready to leap into danger as Tom, but she also would never say no to accompanying him on his adventures. They always stuck together and she, while the more careful one of the two, was clever and resourceful and arguably the best-written character of the series up until that point.

Here? This new version of Mirjam is so whiny and all she cares about is not getting her clothes dirty. Like, way to downgrade her character. Instead of this adventurous, smart and loyal friend to Tom now she just feels like a generic boring girl character who avoids conflict at all costs and cares so much about her clothes. Prior-Mirjam would never. Hashtag NotMyMirjam. There goes the best character of the franchise down the drain.

Also, this movie does establish formally that Tom and Mirjam are now adopted siblings. In the first two movies they come across more as close friends but this movie does confirm that by now (in this different timeline of course) Mirjam is adopted as Tom's sister. And I'm kind of happy about that, I like this better than if they would've made them romantically involved. But it does still beg the question what the heck happened to Mirjam's parents even in this modern-setting universe. And we still don't get any confirmation of it here, either. 

The costuming in the medieval parts also looks...I don't know, cheap. I don't know enough about medieval costumes to call them possibly inaccurate but they just don't look that convincing. 

Honestly the only element I kinda liked Wasil who is a sketchy character and a part of the gang but does end up helping Tom in the end. He wasn't amazing and doesn't hold a candle to how much I liked Mirjam in the first two movies, but he was on the more rounded side. The new character Jaap (who has the hots for Mirjam) is also not that bad but I thought him fighting with Tom over Mirjam's attention was just a weak plot point. Tom is her protective brother and he's a bit jealous of his sister spending time with someone else, but still. It feels a bit childish even for these characters. I'll give this movie's version of Mirjam credit for one thing: her standing up to the boys over this because she's her own person and can decide for herself who she wants to spend time with. 

Overall this is just a big downgrade from the first two movies. I was bored, the actors were not as good as those in the prior films, the plot less engaging, and the change in timeline is just baffling. I'll watch the fourth movie as well (which continues on from this one, also in the modern setting with the newer actors) and hope that it's better than this.