A Haunting in Venice

A Haunting in Venice is now in theaters. Watch or read my full review below, and for more be sure and subscribe to our podcast and youtube channel

Looking at a Haunting in Venice, a film that’s been on my radar for some time, and it’s a good one. Kenneth Branagh is back as Hercule Poirot in a third film based on the Agatha Christie novels. Kenneth Branagh has had huge success, in my opinion, as he has taken on the role of Hercule Poirot, basing films on the Agatha Christie novels. Of course, he did Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. And now he’s back with a Haunting in Venice, a story that I really wasn’t familiar with. It’s based on an Agatha Christie book called Halloween Party.

A lot of people have asked me, Is it a horror film? Because the first two were definitely just murder mysteries. Hercule Poirot there doing what he does best: making lists, asking questions, getting to the bottom of the murder, and figuring it out. This one, it’s almost like it’s supernatural, which puts Hercule Poirotin a very interesting situation. I wasn’t really sure how this film fit in with Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express. But Kenneth Branagh says that it is part of the trilogy and has a very important theme.

The film also stars Michelle Yeoh, Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan. But Tina Fey is probably one of my favorite characters other than Hercule Poirot. Tina Fey is probably one of my favorite people in this film. I’ve always adored Tina Fey anyway, but I feel like she’s really great in this one and a lot of fun to watch. She plays a character that has to be, has to be, even though the character is not named Agatha Christie, you know who they’re talking about.

Fun characters

Tina Fey’s character is this famous writer of mystery, and in her mind, is the one that made Hercule Poirot famous as a famous detective. Whether Hercule Poirot based himself off of the writer’s character or the writer’s character is based off Hercule Poirot, they go back and forth on who chicken and egg a thing throughout the movie. So the relationship between Hercule Poirotand Ms. Oliver, who is played by Tina Fey, is just one of the best parts of the movie. It is an intense, a lot of jump scares and scary moments. But the comedy comes from Tina Fey and Kenneth Branagh just bouncing off of each other in their two characters, and that brings a lot of fun to it.

Kenneth Branagh, what he’s done with Hercule Poirot in the first two films, is given us this really quirky, very OCD-like person who’s very stuck in his ways, very meticulous about things, and he’s willing to admit it. The people around him are willing to point it out to him as well. With Tina Fey, they’re just poking the bear a little bit all the time. Just makes it a lot of fun to watch. Getting back to the scares, it is a very intense, scary film. It takes place on Halloween Night. There is a seance. We’re in post-World War II now. He’s put himself into almost as a reclusive life style of his own choosing.

Tina Fey’s character, Mrs. Oliver, this writer, she wants him to come around and be the Hercule Poirot that we all love. She’s like, I know you’re not taking on cases, but this isn’t a case. I want you to debunk this medium, this woman played by Michelle Yeoh, who is getting this reputation of being able to talk to the dead. Tina Feys character, Mrs. Oliver, says, No, this isn’t true, but I haven’t been able to prove it. She wants Hercule Poirot to come with her to this seance taking place on Halloween night to see if he can figure out and pull the curtain back and find out exactly what’s going on with this because they don’t believe it is going on.

Hercule Poirot shows up, and of course, he doesn’t believe it at all. He believes that everything has a reason. So he doesn’t believe in the after life. He doesn’t believe in ghosts. He doesn’t believe in spirits. He’s very vocal about that. And it’s very ambiguous in the film, which I like. They don’t really say, Yes, there’s definitely ghosts. Yes, there’s definitely spirits in the after life. But like Hercule Poirot, we go on this journey of just wondering, Well, what is there after life and death and all of this that’s mixed into the other dimensions? Is it there? At the heart of this is a murder mystery.

Once you find out who’s murdered, then along with Hercule, you have to figure it out. What I like, too, about it, they make it obvious in my mind, but then you think, Oh, I got this figured out. Then you do have it figured out, but then you don’t have it figured out, if that makes sense. That’s what I really love about this. Obviously, if you’ve read the books, you know exactly what’s taking place. Just the fact that there was a murder mystery and like Hercule Poirot, we knew that at the base of this, this isn’t an abnormal activity.

This isn’t a poltergeist film.

This isn’t a exorcist type film. There is a legitimate explanation at the end of the day. We just have to figure out how to get there. That’s what I like about Agatha Christie and what I like about these three films. We get to go on this journey with Hercule figuring it all out until the end. But this one is darker than the other two. It’s a lot spookier. Just the jump scares, the way they do camera angles, the way they’ve lit it. You know in your mind that there’s an explanation, but at the same time, it’s spooky because you just know what you’re seeing and hearing like Hercule Poirot as he’s watching. It just has the very haunting.

I mean, it’s a haunting in Venice that’s in the title, so you know it’s going to be a very haunting film. But everybody does a great job. Like I said, Tina Fey is in this, Jamie Dornan, Michelle Yeoh, who we love Michelle Yeoh. She does a fabulous job as this medium who… Is she true? Is she a trickster? Is she legit? We don’t know.

But again, when it comes down to the bottom line, it’s all about Hercule Poirot and Ms. Oliver, Tina Fey and Kenneth and what they bring to this film working together as a duo, and they’re so much fun to watch. Again, if you liked the first two, you’re going to like this one as well, even though it has a little bit of a darker tone to it. It was a lot of fun to watch in the theater, and I hope it does well. I really hope that Kenneth Branagh keeps making these films. There’s a lot of Agatha Christie books and stories that he could use. I just love this character. I love what he’s done with it. I love how the films are made. They’re done really, really well. So it’s a Haunting in Venice now in theaters.

About The Author

mungleshow

See author's posts