A Haunting in Venice — Review Thread

Much like the first two, I enjoyed it.  Branagh did a good job of giving the film a Gothic horror feel without it feeling forced or awkward, and the mystery was pretty engaging.  Solid watch.

How so?

I thought this was pretty well-paced throughout, honestly.

A Haunting in Venice(9/17/2023)
When Kenneth Branagh announced that he’d be adapting Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express I was intrigued, but the movie came out in the middle of a crowded November and I had many other movies to see. Then when the sequel, Death on the Nile, came out it was still in the middle of the pandemic and just didn’t feel like a movie worth the risking coronavirus over. 20th Century studios did however wise up for this third film and released it during the emptiest September I can remember in my time seeing movies and that made venturing out for this third movie seem a lot more appealing. There’s actually a lot about this third film that’s being handled differently than the first two in the series. Where those first two movies were based on two of Christie’s most famous works that had previously been adapted into all star super productions in the 70s, this one is based on one of her more obscure Poirot novels a 1969 novel called “Hallowe’en Party,” which appears to have been relocated and heavily modified from the original novel if its Wikipedia summery is to be believed. It’s also been made on something of a smaller scale with a slashed budget and a cast with fewer celebrities and it also has a noticeably different tone that incorporates some horror elements as you could probably guess from the title. The unfamiliarity of the story is an advantage in certain ways; even if this was a direct adaptation of “Hallowe’en Party” the audience would still be much less likely to know “whodunit” than they would in something as well-known as Murder on the Orient Express and indeed I would say that this is the most I’ve really been able to play along with any of these movies as a result. I’d also say that while its incorporation of horror elements is a touch awkward at times I do think the movie does mostly hit its “dark and stormy night” atmosphere pretty well. Where it falters more is in its handling of the Poirot character. There’s nothing here as silly as a moustache origin story but the movie contrives this weird “crisis of faith” situation with him that the events here are supposed to play into and it all just feels kind of tropey and forced. Additionally, while the mystery basically works, it’s nothing too mind blowing as these things go. Judging from the opening weekend box office numbers I don’t think they’ll be making another one of these (I’m actually kind of surprised they made a third) but this isn’t the worst note for the series to go out on and is a solid improvement on the lackluster Death on the Nile, but don’t expect much more than a serviceable entertainment from it.
*** out of Five