Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot Returns in A Haunting in Venice

Note: This review is spoiler free and was originally published in 2023.

Following its predecessors, Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, Kenneth Branagh returns as Agatha Christie’s famed detective, Hercule Poirot, in his adaptation of Christie’s novel, Hallowe’en Party, with sharp departures from the adapted text. Refreshing Christie’s own work by incorporating more Gothic elements, a transposed setting, and a time change, Branagh carefully plucks each element’s string to create an aura of mysticism and intrigue.

Whereas whodunits, like Knives Out, Scream (1996), and even Detective Pikachu, all have very specific settings, Branagh’s renewed setting brings us something that we haven’t really seen before in a murder mystery: the Gothic. While Detective Pikachu and Knives Out rely more on comedy and Scream on the slasher and horror, A Haunting inVenice incorporates distinctly Gothic elements, like the house, the music, the ghosts, and the mysticism, to tell a twisted tale of familial grief, spurned love, and the occult.

While other reviewers argue that the pacing and the atmospheric haunting that Branagh plays with throughout the film are a detriment and “lacks visual flair,” it’s obvious that while utilizing practical effects over CGI, he enjoys toying with the audience as well as his castmates, with the cast stating in a featurette that Branagh worked closely with the technical department to create these effects and that the cast’s reactions to some of them were genuine. Perhaps A Haunting in Venice lacks the visual panache of a Marvel film, but Branagh more than makes up for it with his practical effects, moodiness, and a clever script.

Following her work in Women Talking and Tar, Hildur Guðnadóttir joins Branagh as composer for A Haunting in Venice. Complimenting the dark moodiness of the film, Guðnadóttir’s music accompanies Branagh’s own desire to play with the senses. In an article for Variety, Guðnadóttir and the editor for the film state that Branagh wanted the music to be small and close, contrasting the bigness of film scores in blockbuster films like Jurassic Park, Avengers, and Barbie. In contrast to the bigness we experience in these blockbuster films, Guðnadóttir’s score becomes a part of the screeching wind and the creaking palazzo. Guðnadóttir’s genius is evident throughout the hour and forty minute film, and echoing the ambient lighting of the palazzo, the music haunts and delights the audience, just as the film does.

Though the film is far from perfect, A Haunting in Venice is a delightful addition to Halloween movie lists and is sure to delight us all come those cold and dreary October nights where we’re itching for a good ghost story.