A HAUNTING IN VENICE (2023)

A HAUNTING IN VENICE (2023)

Tagline: Death is just the beginning

(Mystery, Drama, Spooks Ville) [PG-13]

In this one longtime friend and rival Ariadne Oliver reaches out to renowned and retired detective Hercule Poirot to get his help in discovering if a medium Mrs. Reynolds is a fake or not. Part of this effort is witnessing her attempt to talk to the deceased daughter of Rowena Drake. It doesn’t take long before a murder occurs challenging everything Poirot thought he knew about life, death, and A HAUNTING IN VENICE. 

First off, this movie is based on an adaptation of Agatha Christie's 1969 novel "Hallowe'en Party". A few changes were made such as the location. While the previews originally leaned horror heavy this is more of a mystery than anything. Having said that, there are definitely horror elements and some nice spooks along the way without having to be gory or over the top. 

The balance of tone in this film is near perfection once it gets going, but I am not going to say the motives and storyline for part of the mystery were even necessary. There is a really dark turn in this thing that caught me off guard and it would have been plenty on its own to give this thing depth. Having said that, I never read "Hallowe'en Party", so I have no idea if parts of this film were simply honoring the original story or not. The sets are fantastic and I was really impressed by the almost claustrophobic feel I got in some sequences. I was telling a friend the other day. If you really want to master a horror “feel” to your film, create situations where the characters are isolated. This film does a great job of that and I found myself expecting terror at every turn. 

Acting-wise, Kenneth Branagh (DEATH ON THE NILE) returns for his 3rd outing as Hercule Poirot and crushes it. Michelle Yeoh (TOMORROW NEVER DIES) also kills it as Mrs. Reynolds. I don’t think I have seen her in a role quite like this and I have seen a lot of her films. It was cool seeing Tina Fey (MEAN GIRLS) take on a more serious role in this than I am used to out of her as Ariadne Oliver. I was not a fan of Jamie Dornan (HEART OF STONE) who plays Dr. Leslie Ferrier in this. I honestly think there are a ton of actors that could have done a better job. Camille Cottin (GOLDA) is better than decent in this as Olga Seminoff but wasn’t asked to show as much range as the rest of the cast. Jude Hill (DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES) gives a solid effort here as Leopold Ferrier, he didn’t blow me away, but he’s the only kid in the movie with a decent amount of dialog and I thought he handled it pretty well. Kelly Reilly (SHERLOCK HOLMES) is very good as Rowena Drake, and the rest of the cast is more than adequate. I have a feeling we are about to see a lot more of Emma Laird in the future. The budget for this was $20 million less than DEATH ON THE NILE, so I am hoping it makes money and we get more Kenneth Branagh movies with him as Hercule Poirot.

We get a lot of misdirection mastery in this one and I really liked the ending and storyline quite a bit better than MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. I think the setting of DEATH ON THE NILE was better, but this had a superior story. Not because it was darker, but because it reminds me of another creepy superbly written film with a dark motive that I liked back in the 80s. No, I am not going to tell you what it was because that would probably spoil this for those unfamiliar with the source material. What kind of madman do you think I am. Geez, no. Just go watch this thing and find out for yourself. Directorially Kenneth Branagh crushes this thing with just enough to create the experience he was going for. I also read that some of the cast wasn’t even aware some of the creepy elements of this film were going to happen. All the talents in this were very good, but I think that definitely helped the authenticity factor. 

This probably won’t satisfy moviegoers who were expecting a full-blown gnarly twisted humorless horror flick, but fans of Agatha Christie like myself should be completely satisfied with this engrossing cinematic effort. 

A HAUNTING IN VENICE gets a 6 out of 7. It’s not a perfect film, but my list of things I would have changed is super short. It also came out at the perfect time of the year. 

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