Murder at the Lantern Ball, in fifteen seconds.
5,000 party guests, 16 clues and one killer. Every clue strikes out guests until one name is left. The film is drawn and scored in code, right here in your browser.
Sound starts only after you tap. It pauses when you scroll away.
What the film shows.
- A case file on a green table: Printable murder mystery. Case File No. 1, Halloween. Murder at the Lantern Ball. A counter reads 5,000 suspects, names from the guest register flicker past, a paper lantern sways, and the PDF cover lies on the file: 5,000 guests, 16 clues, 1 killer. Can you find the killer?
- Clue 1 is typed on the file label: Surname starts with a letter from A to P. In the register the four Quinns are struck out in red ink. The counter drops to 3,456.
- Clue 2, Table is less than 24, and clue 3, Ticket does not contain the digit 4, strike out the Prices one by one. 2,013, then 1,176 left.
- Further on in the register, clues 4 to 8 strike out the Harpers: 673, 417, 222, 114, 64 left.
- Clues 9 to 16 flip past. The register leafs through, the guests still in play are blacked out, and the counter falls to 39, 23, 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1.
- The last row is covered by a red stamp with a question mark. Can you find the killer? Printable PDF and tablet version, solution included. 5,000 guests, 16 clues, 1 killer.
Every number and every register row in the film comes from the real case in the file: the same 16 clues, the same guests and the same count after every clue. The guests who are still in play at the end are blacked out on purpose, so the film does not give the answer away.
About the mystery.
Murder at the Lantern Ball is a printable elimination mystery for Halloween: a register of 5,000 masked guests, 16 clues and 3 checkpoints that tell you whether you are still on track. It comes as a PDF for A4 and US Letter and as a tablet version, with the solution at the back. It is on Etsy.
How the film is made.
There is no video file on this page. Every frame is drawn on a canvas by a small script, and every sound, from the typewriter keys to the bell on the last clue, is synthesised by Web Audio in your browser after you tap. No photo, no recording, no picture generator. Questions: andrej@arling.sk.
Our pseudonymous statistics (self-hosted Umami) count the page visit and whether the film was started or replayed. Nothing else.