A Haunting In Venice (2023)

Set in 1947 Venice, the renowned detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) lives in retirement. His friend, the mystery author Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) insists he accompany her to a seance where a bereaved mother (Kelly Reilly) hopes to contact her dead daughter. Based on the novel HALLOWEEN PARTY by Agatha Christie and directed by Kenneth Branagh (HENRY V). To say I loathed Branagh's previous Christie adaptations of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (2017) and DEATH ON THE NILE (2022) is an understatement. The two books were among Christie's best and Branagh bungled them. HALLOWEEN PARTY isn't prime Christie and this adaptation owes very little to the book. It's Agatha Christie in name only as the plot has been changed so much that it's unrecognizable from the source material. This isn't Christie's Poirot or Ariadne (Christie would have been horrified what Branagh has done to her character). All that aside, if you can accept that the movie has very little to do with Agatha Christie, you'll find an engrossing supernatural horror mystery that's quite satisfying except for the ending. As an adaptation of Christie, it sucks. As a non related atmospheric ghost murder mystery, I give it a thumbs up. With Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan, Jude Hill, Kyle Allen and Camille Cottin.