Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile splashed onto the big screen with glitz, glamour, and a whole lot of style! Kenneth Branagh is a man of many talents and thanks to him we got a refreshingly modern, yet also throwback, tale of some of Agatha Christie’s most popular mysteries. Instead of creating another stylish, lavish film with huge sets and explosive drama, we are instead treated to a more isolated film which feels more gothic than what we have had before. Murder on the Orient Express was mainly set on a train, then we had a boat with Death on the Nile, and now we are treated to a haunted orphanage in A Haunting in Venice.
The Halloween theme, dark and stormy setting, the use of séances and the gothic architecture all help to create a more horror-focused story than what we are used to with Branagh’s Poirot films. Kenneth Branagh has chosen to adapt Hallowe’en Party, a tale more focused on loss and grief and how that brings people to do irrational things. The cast is equally as impressive as Branagh’s previous films, even with a few less A-List stars than usual, with the likes of Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Kelly Reilly, Michelle Yeoh, Kyle Allen and Camille Cottin filling the majority of the cast. Michelle Yeoh is a highlight but she is in a short but brief part of the film. This is mainly a Poirot film however, with Poirot being the main star yet again with Branagh playing him with conviction and with scepticism as he attempts to battle the supernatural with logic, in a bit of Sherlock Holmes way.
The story this time around is centred on a couple of murders. Rowena Drake, played by Reilly, lost her daughter not long ago after she committed suicide and drowned. Drake is filled with grief and regret and brings a group of close friends and family together to perform a seance in order to talk to her daughter once again. Soon everything gets upended as the medium in charge of the séance is brutally murdered. The question is, was it a lingering spirit that killed her or was it a member of Drake’s party? Poirot was luckily still in the haunted building when the murder occurred thanks to Poriot’s friend and novelist Ariadne Oliver invitation. Ariadne Oliver is played by Fey in a role that acts as a surrogate to Christie herself. From the point of this murder the film goes down a twisted route as yet another death occurs, and old secrets are revealed.
A Haunting in Venice still has all the basic elements of the murder mystery genre, with a lot of context given to the circumstances of Rowena’s daughters death and with the other characters throughout the film. Everyone has a reason to want someone dead, and that makes the waters more murkier in terms of possible suspects. The horror elements work well, but it is further imbalanced due to Poirot debunking every supernatural episode with logic and physics, like wind circling the building, or contraptions that can give the illusion of spiritual possession. There are jump scares and there are some interesting supernatural episodes that may or may not be explainable, but by the end of the film you feel like they could have played around with the genre more. A Haunting in Venice is a good film, but when stood with its predecessors it feels more like a downgrade and almost more of the same, instead of trying anything new or any innovative storytelling techniques.
★★★☆☆
3/5
Final Verdict:
A Haunting in Venice doesn’t have the stylish, grandiose feel to it like its predecessors. Instead, it is a more confined, isolated and gothic story which is told in the typical Agatha Christie mould. While it is another adaption of one of Christie’s books, it looks and feels unlike what you are expecting. The supernatural aspects are not as heightened as you’d expect. Instead the film feels rather grounded, with logical explanations defying all supernatural aspects of the story. The cast is great, and Branagh is again the focus of the film with Poirot in the leading role. His story is not as explored as the others, but I have a feeling there are more of Poirot’s tales to be told on the big screen.
Thanks for reading today’s blog!
Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions
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