A Haunting in Venice

Do not adjust your sets, Kenneth Branagh has pulled off a true twist with his genre switching Poirot threequel A Haunting in Venice.

No moustache origin stories here, Branagh takes his series from star-studded but old-fashioned (especially in light of the recent resurgence of the ‘whodunnit’ murder mystery genre both in TV and film with Knives Out, See How They Run, Poker Face et al.) to straight-up scary here.

Don’t worry, this is still a classic Poirot mystery with the requisite twists, reveals and surprises. Unlike its forebears though, Branagh deliberately harks back to the past with a Gothic horror twist which feels properly fresh and properly creepy.

This really could get to a few families who may trek to the cinema for a day out after enjoying the previous two in the series. Be warned, jump scares and creepy children lie ahead.

It’s easily the best of the series so far because of this. A slightly scatty opening is excused for pulling us into the core mystery as quickly as possible and, once there, we are as disoriented as Poirot himself as he comes to terms with his trickiest case yet.

The slightly ‘smaller’ names on the cast (no disrespect intended, it’s just arguably less ‘A-list’ than before) works totally in its favour as it becomes easier to be drawn into the characters, chew on their motives and feel their fear.

Some neat camerawork with old-school Dutch angles and a focus on the proper spooky architecture of the Venetian Palazzo in which its based really give it a Hammer Horror, religious gothic, ghost tale feel and gives it a ‘classic’ sheen rather than just feeling a tad leaden and old-fashioned like the previous entries which were pretty, likeable and well-made but unfortunately ‘meh.’

A much needed shot in the arm for the series, regardless of whether we will see more of Branagh’s Poirot or not, and a very good example of a genre switch-up within a franchise.

⭐️⭐️⭐️