Kenneth Branagh’s A Haunting in Venice wants to be a puzzle box wrapped in fog. It is the third outing for his Hercule Poirot, and it leans further into the supernatural than either of the previous films. The result is a movie that is genuinely atmospheric but struggles to hold together once the audience tries to follow the logic of its own crime.
Based on Agatha Christie’s 1969 novel Hallowe’en Party, the film drops Poirot (Branagh) out of retirement and into a séance held at a decaying palazzo in post-war Venice. The case begins when a guest is murdered during the ceremony, and the detective finds himself caught in a web of ghosts, secrets, and a killer who may not even be human.
Trailer, via 20th Century Studios.
The Séance That Sets It All In Motion
The setup is classic Christie: a group of strangers brought together by a medium who claims to contact the dead. Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), a mystery writer and friend of Poirot, insists that the detective attend to expose Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) as a fraud. The guests include opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly), her housekeeper Olga Seminoff (Camille Cottin), the Drake family doctor Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan) and his son Leopold (Jude Hill), and Joyce’s Romani assistant Desdemona Holland (Emma Laird).
Poirot’s presence is reluctant. He is living in self-imposed exile in Venice, employing ex-police officer Vitale Portfoglio (Riccardo Scamarcio) as a bodyguard. His decision to come is driven by curiosity, not duty. The séance itself is the engine of the film’s first act, and it works well. The palazzo is described as decaying and haunted, and the film leans into that description with a sense of dread that is often missing from other adaptations of Christie’s work.
“Death was only the beginning.”
That tagline sums up the film’s approach: it is less interested in the mechanics of the crime and more in the mood around it. The séance is a genuine scare, and the film earns its jump scares through a slow build of unease rather than cheap tricks.
The Ghosts and the Killer
Joyce Reynolds is the pivot of the story. She speaks in the voice of Alicia Drake, Rowena’s deceased daughter, during the séance, and she reveals that Alicia was murdered by one of the guests present. The revelation sets Poirot on a path of interviews, deductions, and increasingly strange encounters with what appears to be Alicia’s ghost.
The investigation leads Poirot to uncover a web of personal motives. Leslie, the doctor, is revealed to be a severely traumatized war veteran who is in love with Rowena. Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen), the chef whose engagement to Alicia was broken off, was not initially invited to the séance. He broke off the engagement because Rowena herself did not approve of him. Alicia, meanwhile, was obsessed with keeping her mother happy.
Leopold claims to hear voices from the spirits of children left to die of plague when the palazzo was an orphanage. He also hears the voice Poirot has been hearing. The spirits are said to haunt and kill any doctors or nurses who set foot within it. Joyce, it turns out, had served as a nurse during World War I.
These threads are rich material for a thriller. They give each character a reason to lie and a motive to hide. But the film spends too much time on atmosphere and not enough on clarity. The storm that cuts off the palazzo creates a claustrophobic setting, but it also traps the audience inside a narrative that grows increasingly tangled.
The Problem With the Plot
The central problem is that the film cannot decide whether it is a mystery or a horror story. The tagline suggests the latter, but the structure demands the former. A murder is committed, and the audience is promised a solution. Instead, the film keeps pushing the ghostly elements forward while leaving the actual crime unresolved.
Poirot’s investigation is supposed to lead to a breakthrough, but the breakthrough never arrives. The film ends on a note that is more ambiguous than satisfying. The ghostly presence is explained, but the killer remains uncaught, and the final image is more unsettling than conclusive.
This is a film that knows how to create tension but not how to resolve it. The séance is a strong opening, but the payoff is weak. The supernatural elements are used effectively early on, but they become a crutch later, holding the story back from a clean conclusion.
The Ensemble Cast
The cast is a strength. Branagh plays Poirot with the usual mix of vanity and sharp intellect, and he commits fully to the role. Tina Fey brings a comic energy to Ariadne Oliver that grounds the proceedings, even when the script asks her to deliver exposition-heavy dialogue. Jamie Dornan plays Leslie with a quiet desperation that makes his secret love for Rowena feel earned, not forced.
Kyle Allen is solid as Maxime, and Jude Hill delivers a memorable performance as Leopold, the boy who hears the ghostly voices. Michelle Yeoh is excellent as Joyce, giving the medium a warmth and sincerity that makes her eventual fate land harder. The supporting players, including Ali Khan as Nicholas Holland and Emma Laird as Desdemona, get moments to shine despite limited screen time.
The Final Verdict
A Haunting in Venice is a film with a great premise and a middling execution. It is atmospheric, well-cast, and visually striking, but it loses focus when it needs to deliver. The mystery is undercooked, the ending is open, and the supernatural elements that promise thrills end up diluting the suspense.
The film runs 104 minutes, and that runtime feels stretched by a story that refuses to commit to its own genre. It is a haunted house story that never quite becomes a ghost story, and a mystery that never quite becomes a resolution.
The film premiered at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on 11 September 2023 and opened in the United States on 15 September via 20th Century Studios. It received positive reviews from critics and grossed $122.3 million worldwide.
It is a worthy entry in the Poirot franchise, but it is the weakest link in the trilogy. The setting is perfect, the cast is strong, and the tone is moody, but the crime at its core never gets solved. The ghost of Alicia Drake haunts the film’s final scenes, but the audience is left wondering whether she was ever real at all.
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