‘A Haunting In Venice’: Review

Dir: Kenneth Branagh. US. 2023. 103mins

A confection that is equal parts murder mystery, old-fashioned ghost story and supernatural thriller, the third instalment of Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot series proves to be the most enjoyable. A Haunting In Venice follows the intrepid detective, now retired, as his latest case tests his wits as well as his confidence in himself, resulting in the actor-director delivering a performance that is agreeably less hammy than in the previous chapters. Once again featuring a starry international cast and remarkable production design, A Haunting In Venice succeeds as an engaging, undemanding exercise in gothic mood, with Branagh pulling out some of the same spooky textures he incorporated decades ago for his equally cheeky whodunnit Dead Again. 

An engaging, undemanding exercise in gothic mood

The film arrives in theatres in the UK and US on September 15, hoping to entice the adult audiences who lined up for 2017’s Murder On The Orient Express and 2022’s Death On The Nile. It is fair to wonder how much enthusiasm there is for another Agatha Christie adaptation, but considering the continued popularity of another flamboyant detective — Benoit Blanc from the Knives Out franchise — A Haunting In Venice could command solid grosses.

Set on Hallows’ Eve about 10 years after the events of Death On The Nile, the picture (based on Christie’s novel Hallowe’en Party) finds Hercule Poirot (Branagh) residing in Venice and enjoying a quiet life. But his self-imposed retirement is interrupted by the arrival of his friend Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), an acclaimed mystery novelist who invites him to a seance, wanting him to deduce if the medium running it, Joyce (Michelle Yeoh), is a scam artist. Intrigued, Poirot accepts her offer, learning that a woman named Alicia died a year ago under mysterious circumstances in the palazzo where the event is taking place. Poirot quickly exposes the tricks Joyce utilises to create the belief that she is communicating with the dead but soon one of the guests dies, prompting the detective to investigate who at the seance is the killer.

Branagh’s first Christie adaptation, Murder On The Orient Express, suffered from excessive fussiness — whether it was the overly elaborate costumes, the mannered performances or Branagh’s florid interpretation of the brilliant Belgian detective. By comparison, Death On The Nile was slightly more restrained and darker in tone, and A Haunting In Venice further improves in those regards, becoming the first film in the series to resemble a horror-thriller. 

Working with frequent cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos, Branagh shoots from high, low and canted angles, creating a constant sense of disorientation within the gorgeous estate. (The digital lensing makes excellent use of low lighting, with the characters constantly drenched in shadows during this unnerving night.) The elegant anxiousness provided by Lucy Donaldson’s editing and Hildur Gudnadottir’s string-laden score only amplify the audience’s dread that something paranormal is afoot — no matter Poirot’s insistence that reason, not mysticism, can explain what is transpiring.

That spooky atmosphere, which evokes other Venice-set chillers like Don’t Look Now, is complemented by a mostly solid supporting cast. Fey overdoes her role as Oliver, the actress’ snarky line-readings a bit one-note. More successful is Yeoh, who is seductive and unsettling as Joyce, never doubting her supernatural abilities and coming across as somewhat spectral herself. But it is Jude Hill, who portrayed the young protagonist in Branagh’s semi-autobiographical Oscar-winner Belfast, who nearly steals A Haunting In Venice. He’s devilish as Leopold, an eerily intelligent child who alone recognises that Poirot is stymied in his attempts to solve this mystery — and correctly concludes that the master detective is starting to see strange phantoms. (Another Belfast star, Jamie Dornan, again plays Hill’s father, although his doctor character is not particularly memorable.) 

Branagh has always applied a light touch to these Christie films, respecting the source material while leaning into the author’s penchant for colourful suspects and juicy twists. These pictures are meant to be escapist fare — fun but disposable — and as such, they harken back to 1991’s Dead Again, which saw Branagh irreverently tinkering with noir tropes. A Haunting In Venice continues the series’ pursuit of murder-mystery storytelling that never takes itself too seriously while still dishing out the requisite thrills and suspense. 

And as Branagh has become more comfortable helming these handsomely mounted baubles, he has simultaneously grown more assured as Hercule Poirot, who has shed some of his cockiness as he’s gotten older, although his mind remains as sharp as ever. It will not be easy for Poirot to crack the case, but there is no question that Branagh is the main culprit behind why A Haunting In Venice is an improvement on the earlier pictures.