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Review: A Haunting in Venice Thrills, Chills & Starts Spooky Season With Style

A Haunting in Venice Thrills, Chills & Starts Spooky Season With Style

Tina Fey as Ariadne Oliver, Michelle Yeoh as Mrs. Reynolds, and Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot in 20th Century Studios' A HAUNTING IN VENICE.
Rob Youngson/20th Century Studios

Tina Fey and Michelle Yeoh steal the show (no surprise) in this atmospheric and charming whodunit.

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Hang on the vestiges of summer all you want, but the reality is that fall is nearly here and with it all the spooky thrills of the season including A Haunting in Venice, a cozy and creepy whodunit hitting theaters this weekend.

Director and star Kenneth Branagh returns as Hercule Poirot, the world-renowned private investigator (with a mustache that is the envy of the entirety of the Pacific Northwest), in this latest Agatha Christie adaptation.

(L-R): Tina Fey as Ariadne Oliver and Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot in 20th Century Studios' A HAUNTING IN VENICE. Photo by Rob Youngson. \u00a9 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Rob Youngson/20th Century Studios

When we catch up with the illustrious crime solver, it is 1947 and he has retreated to a life of solitude and retirement in post-World War II Venice. But inevitably his time away from death and detecting proves short-lived when American novelist Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) arrives on his doorstep with a proposition, that he accompany her to an All Hallows Eve séance being held at the supposedly haunted palazzo of opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly). After the holiday festivities, the group will be joined by medium Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) who was the last of the women to be jailed for witchcraft in the city and who promises to make contact beyond the veil with Rowena’s recently deceased daughter. Also in attendance are a bevy of soon-to-be suspects and red herrings, of course. The reason Ariadne is dragging the Poirot along? To prove once and for all if there truly is anything beyond death. It's only a matter of time until both that question and Poirot's skills are put to the test.

(Facing front, L-R): Jude Hill as Leopold Ferrier, Camille Cottin as Olga Seminoff, Michelle Yeoh as Mrs. Reynolds, Jamie Dornan as Dr. Leslie Ferrier, and Kyle Allen as Maxime Gerard in 20th Century Studios' A HAUNTING IN VENICE. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. \u00a9 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Rob Youngson/20th Century Studios

What follows is both a charming and intermittently melancholy whodunit which is as much about ghosts as it is the ghosts of our past. Be it familial trauma, wartime trauma, or the restless spirits of medieval orphans cruelly left behind to expire by their caretakers. It's a tale perfectly suited to the film's gothic and baroque atmosphere, locale, and aesthetic. Masked gondoliers paddle by, a terrifying puppet show thrills, and shadows dance in all the dark, cob-webbed filled corners of a once grand home

Branaugh reprises his dual roles in front of the camera and behind, and adds to the sense of creeping dread with the visual flair of his camera work. His employment of body-mounted cameras adds a sense of spiraling sanity and his liberal use of Dutch angles enhances the feelings of the uncanny.

Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot in 20th Century Studios' A HAUNTING IN VENICE. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. \u00a9 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Rob Youngson/20th Century Studios

While the film’s focus on unpacking a murder mystery is still very much in keeping with the previous two movies in the franchise, Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, Haunting freshens up the formula with the introduction of the (possibly) supernatural, akin to a gothic ghost story. Appropriately, Edgar Allan Poe gets a mention in the film as it plays like a collaboration between Poe and Christie, blending both her clever plot twists and his eerie melancholia.

(L-R): Riccardo Scamarcio as Vitale Portfoglio and Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot in 20th Century Studios' A HAUNTING IN VENICE. Photo by Rob Youngson. \u00a9 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Rob Youngson/20th Century Studios

As to the performances, Branagh is once again in fine form here as he meticulously investigates in his signature mustache-twirling fashion. The film is further elevated by its ensemble. Reilly offers plenty of pathos as the mourning mother. Jamie Dornan presents an aching portrayal of a man who has seen far too much in battlefront hospitals. But it's Fey’s proto-girl-boss and Yeoh’s theatrical soothsayer who bring the real camp with a pair of game performances, and in doing so snatch the spotlight.

Michelle Yeoh as Mrs. Reynolds in 20th Century Studios' A HAUNTING IN VENICE. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. \u00a9 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Rob Youngson/20th Century Studios

Altogether, the film succeeds in summoning up creepy delight for audiences at just the right time of year. A Haunting in Venice proves that Agatha Christie’s classic whodunit style never goes, well, out of style.

30 Years of Out100Out / Advocate Magazine - Jonathan Groff and Wayne Brady

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Rachel Shatto

EIC of PRIDE.com

Rachel Shatto, Editor in Chief of PRIDE.com, is an SF Bay Area-based writer, podcaster, and former editor of Curve magazine, where she honed her passion for writing about social justice and sex (and their frequent intersection). Her work has appeared on Dread Central, Elite Daily, Tecca, and Joystiq. She's a GALECA member and she podcasts regularly about horror on the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network. She can’t live without cats, vintage style, video games, drag queens, or the Oxford comma.

Rachel Shatto, Editor in Chief of PRIDE.com, is an SF Bay Area-based writer, podcaster, and former editor of Curve magazine, where she honed her passion for writing about social justice and sex (and their frequent intersection). Her work has appeared on Dread Central, Elite Daily, Tecca, and Joystiq. She's a GALECA member and she podcasts regularly about horror on the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network. She can’t live without cats, vintage style, video games, drag queens, or the Oxford comma.