Director: Kenneth Branagh
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Kyle Allen, Camille Cottin, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Jude Hill, Ali Khan, Emma Laird, Kelly Reilly, Riccardo Scamarcio, Michelle Yeoh
Certificate: 12A
Run Time: 103 mins

A Haunting In Venice is the latest Poirot property directed and starring Sir Kenneth Branagh, loosely based on Agatha Christie’s 1969 novel Hallowe’en Party. This is Branagh’s third outing as the Belgian detective – Murder on the Orient Express was fine but failed to make the most of its star-studded cast. Death on the Nile better developed its characters but suffered with an ear-scraping script, blatant and distracting green screen and poor pacing. Branagh changes tact for A Haunting In Venice, with a lower $60 million budget and introducing supernatural horror elements.  The film opens with Poirot living in retirement in Venice until mystery writer Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) turns up at his door and convinces him to attend a Halloween party. At the party, famous psychic Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) is performing a seance and the two plan to expose the medium as a fraud. 

While A Haunting In Venice is a major improvement over Death On The Nile, Branagh sadly still hasn’t managed to quite strike the right chord tonally and the film has its fair share of issues. On the plus side, Branagh tones down his Poirot performance (even the moustache itself this time has shrunk) and seems to have better settled into the role. It’s visually the best-looking film of the trio and is beautifully shot by Haris Zambarloukos, resplendent with Dutch angles. Venice is stunningly captured in the daylight, even if its canals aren’t typically in as pristine a condition as Zambarloukos conveys here. 

Branagh has also ditched his regular composer Patrick Doyle, in exchange for Hildur Guðnadóttir, who won an Oscar for her sensational Joker score. Her string-based score is more effective both of Doyle’s previous efforts, although it’s under-utilised and therefore not developed enough for there to be any distinct and memorable themes. 

A Haunting In Venice is also better paced than its predecessors, coming in at a more economical 103 minutes (the previous entries hovered around the 120 minute mark). While the script, once again penned by Logan and Blade Runner 2049 screenwriter Michael Green isn’t of Academy Award calibre, it’s a stark improvement over Death on the Nile.  

Unfortunately, the horror tinged feel Branagh tries to go for just doesn’t really work – there’s the odd attempt at a jump scare but the film lacks the claustrophobia and the nastiness for it to be truly effective. A Haunting In Venice also has the least interesting mystery of the three films – we know the supposedly supernatural elements can be explained rationally and it all feels a bit tedious having to go through the motions of the mystery to get to the underwhelming reveal. The characters also aren’t particularly well developed, with John Wick: Chapter 2’s Riccardo Scamarcio probably fairing the best as an ex-police officer who acts as Poirot’s bodyguard. Tina Fey doesn’t get a lot to work with and the usually great Kelly Reilly turns in an overly catatonic performance. 

It’s a shame that Branagh still isn’t able to crack the correct formula for a Poirot film. While A Haunting In Venice improves on its predecessors in many ways, particularly with its pristine visuals, it’s let down by its reticence to fully commit to its horror influences and a largely uninvolving story.

⭐⭐ (Poor)