A Haunting in Venice review

A HAUNTING IN VENICE: 

THIRD CHAPTER OF KENNETH BRANAGH’S WHODUNNIT SERIES EFFECTIVELY EMBRACES HORROR ASPECT! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

20^TH CENTURY STUDIOS

Kelly Reilly, Tina Fey, Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Yeoh, and Jamie Dornan in A Haunting in Venice

 

            Director and star Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet (1996), Thor, Belfast) returns as detective Hercule Poirot in A Haunting in Venice, the highly anticipated follow-up to 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express and last year’s Death on the Nile and based on the Agatha Christie novel, Hallowe’en Party. I’ve enjoyed the previous films in Branagh’s series of whodunnits, I thought his take on Murder on the Orient Express was a lot of fun with a thoroughly engaging mystery and a star-studded cast of memorable characters while Death on the Nile’s breathtaking shots of Egypt alone made it worth going out of my way to see in IMAX. 

            Which brings us to A Haunting in Venice, released only a year after Death on the Nile and finds Branagh’s Hercule Poirot dealing with something he’s never witnessed before, ghosts. Definitely sounded like a drastic change when the trailer and posters came out, but I was very much intrigued by it and confident in Branagh’s directing talents. 

            While Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile may be what most people are looking for in this series, I had a good time with A Haunting in Venice. Granted, I prefer the murder-mystery element of the earlier films more, but I praise Branagh for doing something different with his third outing and the horror aspect doesn’t feel out of place especially when it all comes together in the end. 

            The film is set ten years after the events of Death on the Nile and follows now-retired detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh) living in Venice and has left behind his days of solving mysteries. But when he is called in to solve the year-old murder of a young girl named Alicia Drake after a séance has been performed to communicate with her ghost, things take a terrifying turn when somebody ends up dead and Hercule’s personal beliefs are challenged as he races to find the culprit(s) of the murders. 

            The film also stars Tina Fey (30 Rock, Mean Girls, Date Night) as Ariadne Oliver, Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Everything Everywhere All at Once) as Joyce Reynolds, Kyle Allen (The Path, West Side Story (2021), American Horror Story: Apocalypse) as Maxime Gerard, Camille Cottin (Allied, Stillwater, House of Gucci) as Olga Seminoff, Jamie Dornan (Marie Antoinette, Fifty Shadestrilogy, Belfast) as Dr. Leslie Ferrier, Jude Hill (Belfast, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) as Leopold Ferrier, Emma Laird (Mayor of Kingstown, The Crowded Room, The Brutalist) as Desdemona Holland, Kelly Reilly (Pride & Prejudice, Sherlock Holmes 1 and 2, Flight) as Rowena Drake, and Riccardo Scamarcio (Polisse, To Rome with Love, John Wick: Chapters 2 and 3) as Vitale Portfoglio.

            Overall, A Haunting in Venice will likely be considered the black sheep of Kenneth Branagh’s murder-mystery series because of its emphasis on horror, but it’s still a very well-crafted and engaging third chapter. At first glance, the horror element sounds very jarring but when you see the movie and uncover the mystery it isn’t as out of place as you’d expect. 

            I still believed we were in the same universe as the other films and A Haunting in Venice at its core is still a murder-mystery movie first that just happens to have supernatural themes. However, what really sets this film apart from Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile is that the majority of it takes place within the walls of a house (A very large house mind you, but a house nonetheless) which gives it more of a sense of claustrophobia and confinement than being stuck on a train in the mountains or a boat on the Nile River in Egypt. 

            At the center of all the chaos and terror, Kenneth Branagh is as charismatic as ever as Hercule Poirot who along with Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc from the Knives Out films are some of the best modern movie detectives in my opinion. This is where the brilliance of the film comes in, the fact that it’s Hercule from Murder on the Orient Expressand Death on the Nile attempting to debunk these rumors and legends about ghosts as a man who doesn’t believe in the supernatural being forced to challenge his own beliefs which I found very interesting as I was watching it. 

            The supporting cast is also excellent including a phenomenal Michelle Yeoh despite her limited screen-time who practically dominates the séance sequence and a rare non-comedic performance from Tina Fey as an author and close friend of Hercule. Both Branagh and Fey have very likable chemistry and I especially enjoy the banter between them throughout the film which at times is humorous but not distractingly comical. 

            Branagh is no stranger to directing horror as he previously directed 1994’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and you can tell he was having a ball crafting a haunted house that ironically puts Disney’s recent Haunted Mansion to shame. Unlike the first Thor movie, he utilizes his Dutch angles much more efficiently and effectively with a horror setting and does add to the suspense of certain scenes. 

            I will admit the film starts to lose a bit of momentum in the last act when it’s revealed who the mastermind(s) is/are as I was having a lot more fun seeing Hercule in different situations than in the other films. Though it does explain the reason why Hercule was seeing ghosts and ghastly images throughout the house that made it feel like it was the same universe as the earlier films, I still found the journey to be more entertaining than the mystery itself. 

            A Haunting in Venice will probably be very polarizing among audiences whether it’s those expecting a Blumhouse/Conjuring-style horror movie or people going in expecting something along the lines of Orient Express or Nile. However, if you know exactly what you’re getting into, you’ll likely have a good time with Branagh’s next chapter of his Agatha Christie whodunnit film series.