A Haunting in Venice is the third in the series of movies based on an Agatha Christie mystery novel. Kenneth Branagh stars as Hercule Poirot in all three films. I really liked the first two movies based on the most popular books by Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. The Haunting of Venice is based on the Halloween Party.
A Haunting in Venice is produced and directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also stars as the main character, Hercule Poirot. The movie is a sequel to Death on the Nile as Poirot is traveling the world in his retirement. The screenplay for the film was written by Michael Green who also wrote the screenplay for Murder on the Orient Express. The only film star I recognized was Tina Fey or Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock fame. The rest of the cast was mostly European, but many were acclaimed in their regions.
The plot begins with Hercule Poirot enjoying breakfast on the roof of his home in Venice. Ariadne Oliver, an American mystery novelist (played by Tina Fey), pays him a visit so that she can invite him to a seance on Halloween at a palazzo owned by a famous opera singer. The intention is to expose the medium who was hired as a fraud. The opera singer’s daughter drowned years before and the medium is hired to speak with the dead young lady. Besides Poirot and Ariadne, the seance will include the mother, father, the young lady’s ex-fiance and the nurse. It is revealed that the daughter didn’t actually drown but was murdered and the killer would be present at the seance. Of course, nothing is as it seems in an Agatha Christie novel, so the audience should expect the unexpected as Hercule Poirot investigates.
Filming began in October 2022 with scenes in Venice and at Pinewood Studios in England. The movie was distributed by 20th Century Studios in the U.S. on September 15, 2023. The SAG-AFTRA strike was still in occurrence at release time, so none of the film’s stars attended the formal release. As of October 6, A Haunting in Venice has grossed $33.7 million in the US and Canada markets. The film received mostly favorable reviews from the critics.
I did not enjoy this movie as much as I thought I would. I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie; I’ve read a majority of her books. I have not read Halloween Party on which this movie was based. it is one of her lesser-known books. The movie was not terrible, and I was quite surprised at the resolution as always. The audience can never guess who performed the crime at hand. I thought it moved somewhat slowly. There was an aura of creepiness throughout the plot, but I think they could have done more with it. I give this movie 3 out of 5 stars.
