Rent A Haunting in Venice (2023)

Gothic - A Haunting in Venice review by sb

FILM & REVIEW Enjoyed the first Branagh/Poriot outing far more than i expected but hated Nile - shot during Covid restrictions they used CGI for everything and it all looked really fake. This is much more like it - set in a out of season Venice where Poriot lives in retirement but is enticed by a friend and mystery author (Fey) to attend a seance where she intends to expose a fake medium (Yeoh) but ends up with an impossible murder which is followed by others. It’s got all the usual sleight of hand that you expect from Agatha Christie but Branagh adds a deeper level of characters including himself being haunted by ghosts from their own pasts. Set in a gloomy palazzzo over a single storm tossed night its as much a haunted house film as a whodunnet with lashings of gothic atmosphere and looks terrific. Ok the denouement at the finale is a little less than convincing but that aside there is much to enjoy with each character hiding secrets and the use of the Venice locations is splendid. - 4/5

Passable, watchable, VERY loose adaptation of Christie's HALLOWEEN PARTY (1990sTV version is better) - A Haunting in Venice review by PV

This is VERY loosely based on Agatha Christie's HALLOWEEN PARTY - there is a more authentic version with David Suchet as Poirot from the 1990s.

I do not mind such loose adaptations but the shoehorning of ISHOOS into plots and colourblind casting annoys me a lot. This is set in 1947, remember.. There WAS a woman convicted of witchcraft in the UK during WWII; and no, she was not OF COLOUR because at that time there were only 6000 black people in the UK of a population of 44 million and hardly any Chinese people (so few in fact that 1950s film THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS had to cast the children of Chinese diplomats as they could not find any native Brit ones).

Honestly, TV drama and the film industry needs to GET A GRIP and DEWOKE itself. Would that cast a white guy as a Zulu warrior? No, and nor should they. SO why the reverse then? I tend to turn off or over when I smell the wokey stench of colourblind casting or pc/metoo sermonising/preaching in drama and films. BUT we still have the archive to enjoy, thank goodness.

Venice looks lovely. Not sure I buy the spiritual guff - my eyes roll out of my skull at such stuff, frankly.

It is all a bit silly but watchable. I do prefer the old TV Poirot from 1990s on though (see now often on ITV3). David Suchet IS Poirot.

3/5

Plodding & Disappointing Whodunnit - A Haunting in Venice review by GI

Kenneth Branagh brings a sprightly, somewhat original take to Agatha Christie's iconic detective Hercule Poirot but once again having hoped for a neat whodunnit I find I'm once again bogged down in a sluggish uneventful narrative that ultimately begins to bore. This was the same with the previous Branagh adaptation Death On The Nile (2022) but at least Branagh, as director, has opted for less big effects laden scenes for the claustrophobia of a haunted house vibe. But unfortunately no amount of raging storms, jump scares and sudden sideways glances makes for a compelling drama here. Set in 1947 and Poirot is now grumpily retired in Venice refusing all efforts to get him to investigate any new cases. But his friend, a mystery novel writer (Tin Fey) persuades him to accompany her to a seance at a big old venetian house in order to debunk the famous spiritualist (Michelle Yeoh). And yes of course a murder or two occurs and Poirot is on the case basically because everyone is trapped within by the storm outside. The film relies on lots of little events that eventually get explained in the lengthy denouement that Poirot delivers after having run around the creepy corridors for much of the screen time. Adding dollops of supernatural, horror film stylings hasn't aided the film, indeed it's made it seem a bit silly. There's no doubt the huge cast are having great fun but the viewer has to sit back and hope the answer gets revealed sooner than it actually does. Tina Fey, despite a major role, is largely sidelined; Kelly Reilly, Jamie Dornan and others look shocked, scared or confused at various times but overall the film is a letdown.