Victor and the Secret of Crocodile Mansion 2012

Victor is both thrilled and puzzled when his family moves into his grand-uncle’s somber mansion, a place crowded with African masks, taxidermy crocodile mounts, and a heavy secret: four decades ago his grand-cousin Cecilia, the same age as he is now, lost her life on the mansion’s impressive staircase, and the circumstances of her death still remain obscure.

Alone with his teenage sisters Louise and Cora while their parents travel, he practices with a sword in front of the big mirror in the parlor and is appalled when he sees the reflection of a masked man. A burglar? But how could anyone have entered the house when all doors seemed to be locked from inside? Mrs. Debisch, the gruff, elderly housekeeper, suggests it is only his imagination—yet a lingering sense that something is being hidden stays with him.

Driven by detective zeal, he discovers Cecilia’s diary tucked away in a secret drawer of his grand-uncle’s desk. The wax-crayon drawings creep into his mind: a little girl haunted by a pair of glaring eyes, and one image where she seems to be pushed down the staircase. Did Cecilia foresee her own death, or was she speaking in coded messages about a truth others want to keep buried?

With each clue, he learns there are one-way mirrors and secret passages that blur the line between fear and reality, and he finds that confronting those spaces helps him face his own fears as well.

The investigation thickens as the household’s figures come into sharper view: Friedrich Debisch, the middle-aged son; Mr. Strichninsky, the shady neighbor; and Mr. Opitz, the grand-uncle’s old friend who tends to spill the beans after a drink. Yet there are other hidden loyalties and motives behind the doors, drawers, and quiet corners of the mansion.

When the truth surfaces, it is unlike anything he anticipated, reshaping his understanding of the past and his own courage.

Even the title takes a turn toward the surreal: the mansion’s crocodile mounts become alive in a dream sequence, and in a playful, almost theatrical moment, ten snappy and capricious actors bring the scene to life, reminding him that some puzzles are as theatrical as they are deadly.