A Haunting in Venice (2023) marks Kenneth Branagh’s third Agatha Christie adaptation, in which he reprises his role as the famed Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. Unlike Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile though, the film takes far more creative liberties. Loosely based on one of Christie’s less-lauded novels, Hallowe'en Party, A Haunting in Venice is an old-school whodunit with a supernatural undercurrent.

The story itself is pretty formulaic; it embraces classic horror tropes with its ominous close-ups, jarring sound effects, and eerie, gothic atmosphere — creating an enjoyable, if familiar, film.

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A Haunting In Venice Review

A Haunting in Venice is a serviceable murder mystery with some appropriate for the season chills, but it's not much more than that.

How Does A Haunting in Venice End?

In the final scenes of A Haunting in Venice, Poirot reveals that Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly from Yellowstone) murdered her daughter Alicia (Rowan Robinson). She felt abandoned when Alicia got engaged to the chef Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen from American Horror Story: Apocalypse). After the engagement was called off, she refused to let Maxime meet Alicia when he wished to reconcile. She spiked Alicia’s tea with controlled doses of hallucinogenic honey (extracted from rhododendrons), which made her delirious and, most importantly, entirely dependent on her mother. One night, their maid Olga Seminoff (Camille Cottin) unknowingly gave Alicia a lethal dose of the honey, causing her to die in her sleep.

To avoid being caught, Rowena left the mark of the Children’s Vendetta on Alicia’s back and threw the body from the bedroom’s balcony into the canal. This led the local authorities to believe that she either committed suicide due to a broken heart, or she was driven to madness because of the vengeful spirits lurking in the palazzo (formerly an orphanage, it was said to be haunted by ghosts of children who were left to die during an outbreak of the plague).

However, Rowena soon received blackmail letters that threatened to reveal the truth about Alicia’s death. She paid for their silence until her money ran out. Since she was unable to sell her rundown and reputedly haunted house, she plotted to get rid of the blackmailer. When Joyce Reynolds (Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh) declared that she knew who killed Alicia during the séance, Rowena pushed her to her death. Suspicious of Dr. Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan), who performed Alicia’s autopsy, Rowena threatened to kill his son, Leopold (Jude Hill), if he did not stab himself.

With her crimes exposed, Rowena flees to the roof. During a tearful confrontation with Poirot, she is seemingly pulled over the edge by Alicia’s ghost, and plummets into the murky waters below.

As morning arrives, Poirot asks Leopold, the true blackmailer, to not blame himself. Leopold explains that his father missed the signs of poisoning (either because of his declining mental state or his blind love for Rowena), but he knew something was amiss after examining Leslie’s notes. Thus, he blackmailed her just so he could pay the bills, since Leslie was unable to practice anymore. Poirot encourages Leopold to give the leftover money to Nicholas and Desdemona Holland (Ali Khan and Emma Laird) for a trip to Missouri (a dream inspired by Meet Me in St. Louis). Meanwhile, Olga shares her intention to adopt Leopold. The film ends with Poirot returning home to accept a case that was first proposed to him in the opening scene.

Is the palazzo actually haunted? There is no definitive answer given in the film. Since Poirot accidentally ingests the poisonous honey earlier, it explains why he hallucinates and hears voices of the dead. However, Leopold also claims to know the ghosts (“Some of them are my friends”). Secondly, Rowena is seen being pulled deeper into the water by Alicia’s ghostly specter. At the end of A Haunting in Venice, when Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) asks Poirot if he is now a “believer”, he replies:

What Is A Haunting in Venice About?

Set in 1947, A Haunting in Venice opens with a world-weary Poirot in self-imposed exile, with now “cakes for cases”. He has a bodyguard named Vitale Portfoglio (John Wick’s Riccardo Scamarcio) to prevent would-be clients from accosting him in the streets of Venice. On Halloween, the self-important murder mystery writer, Ariadne (his old friend), waltzes into his sheltered, retired life with an invitation to a séance. After three literary flops, she hopes Poirot can discredit “the unholy Ms. Reynolds”, an army nurse turned medium, and provide new material for her next book. The alleged psychic has been invited by the celebrated opera singer Rowena, who wishes to commune with her dead daughter.

After a Halloween party held for the orphans at the crumbling palazzo, the séance begins. Poirot quickly deduces how Joyce’s hidden assistant, Nicholas, has tricked the others into believing that she is channeling Alicia’s spirit. However, Joyce suddenly speaks in Alicia’s voice, announcing that she was murdered. When Poirot confronts Joyce afterward, she tells him to “lighten up”, and puts her robe and mask on him. When Poirot is apple bobbing, an unknown figure attempts to drown him before leaving abruptly. Moments later, Joyce, the killer’s actual target, ends up impaled on a statue.

As a storm rages outside, Poirot locks everyone inside the palazzo to investigate the murder. With the help of Ariadne, he interviews the guests: Olga, the loyal housekeeper; Leslie, who suffers from “war fatigue”; Leopold, a precious and rather unnerving boy; Maxime, who apparently left Alicia for a wealthier woman; and Nicholas and Desdemona, immigrant half-siblings who were stealing from Joyce.

Poirot discovers that Vitale, a former police officer who pulled Alicia’s body from the water, was paid by Ariadne to provide details about the case, which she then fed to Ms. Reynolds. Ariadne’s goal was to make Poirot admit to the medium’s powers, and write a bestseller on “the woman who stumped Hercule Poirot”. During this confrontation, Leslie is found dead.

With an underground chamber full of children’s skeletal remains, a silent parrot, a displaced bunny, and a number of other clues and red herrings, Poirot has to identify the murderer — all while being haunted by the malevolent spirits supposedly inhabiting the palazzo.

What Is A Haunting in Venice’s Rotten Tomatoes Score?

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, A Haunting in Venice has a rating of 76% (based on 291 critics’ reviews). The critics’ consensus is as follows:

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