The works of acclaimed author Agatha Christie are being made into movies with Murder on the Orient Express, Crooked House, and Death on the Nile. Her latest work that has been made into a movie is A Haunting in Venice, which is based on her book Hallowe’en Party. The latest movie inspired by an Agatha Christie novel gives a good mix of crime, suspense, and a bit of horror at the side.
While A Haunting in Venice is a bit dragging and slow-paced at the start–where it establishes the characters of detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) and novelist Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey)–things start to pick up as Poirot and Oliver attend a séance, where they solve a mysterious murder case. While the film serves as a sequel to 2022’s Death on the Nile, you can still understand the plot of A Haunting in Venice as it offers its own unique plot.
The movie aims to give a darker and spookier spin on Poirot’s character, which the film did well especially when he was investigating all of the individuals at the haunted Venetian Palazzo when someone died after the séance late in the night. Even if A Haunting in Venice combines several genres from horror to crime, it manages to balance things out to make the movie engaging in its entirety. The horror aspect is not the type that will really scare you–instead, it felt more like a suspense type of scare.
Those who love crime-solving will appreciate the various methods Poirot used to scrutinize each character inside the Venetian Palazzo–along with unique twists that include Poirot seeing the supernatural–in order to pinpoint not just the crime that occurred in the mansion, but also a past crime that remained a mystery.
The story overall is very engaging once you get over with the rather dragging intro, and you get a solid cast as well that include Michelle Yeoh as Joyce Reynolds, who delivered a spectacular performance despite the rather short screen time. Kelly Reilly as Rowena Drake is also a great performance to watch as well, as she managed to keep her mysterious personality up until the end. For the younger cast members, Jude Hill did channel his character well as the smart Leopold Ferrier who is caring for his mentally unstable father Dr. Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan).
Overall, we give A Haunting in Venice an 8/10 on our Hype Meter. It’s a great film to watch as part of the Agatha Christie movie trilogy, and is arguably the best among the three between Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile.
