A Haunting in Venice | Rotten Tomatoes (2024)

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Critics Reviews

There is a specter of trauma that hangs over the whole movie, turning it from a good classic detective story into something more ghostly and spiritual.

The unsettling supernatural thriller opened in cinemas September 15 2023. Inspired by the novel Hallowe'en Party, and directed by and starring Oscar® winner Kenneth Branagh as famed detective Hercule Poirot.

Set in postwar Europe, the film has no gore, no demons, no bloodied teenagers. Instead, we get crumbling Italian palazzos, fleeting apparitions, and some surprisingly sophisticated themes.

Mysterious and violent incidents occur during a family's 1938 cruise aboard the RMS Queen Mary. These events strangely connect to another family's fate on the same ocean liner in the present.

Haunting of the Queen Mary / Film synopsis

Mystery writer Ariadne Oliver persuades Poirot to attend a Halloween party and séance at the palazzo of famed opera singer Rowena Drake, wishing to expose Joyce Reynolds—a World War I army nurse turned medium—as a fraud.

While the location, Venice, is a real place, the 2023 supernatural mystery movie is based on a fictional story. What is A Haunting in Venice about? The events go down in the World War II aftermath and see Poirot joining a séance at a haunted palazzo in Venice.

Suchet was asked if he had any criticism of Branagh's Poirot. He said: "No, no. He does it in his own way and that's fine. I don't [critique him] I've never seen them.

Indeed, all the typical ghost fare turns out to be a sham, and indeed, Poirot can rationally chalk the mystic visions he had in the house to hallucinogenic honey. But he still submits that it was his subconscious that pieced together facts that manifested in the supposedly prescient specters he saw.

A Haunting in Venice is a departure from the source material, with only character names, some settings, and the murders being transferred to the screen. The changes in the adaptation elevate the original story, adding twists and turns to keep the audience guessing.

Perhaps best of all, Branagh didn't cast anyone who was in The Lone Ranger this time around, as the presence of Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer, all too accurately cast as men of low character, made the other two films more than a bit uncomfortable.

How faithful is A Haunting in Venice? ›

1969 novel Hallowe'en Party is the basis for his new film A Haunting in Venice, but while his previous two adaptations were relatively faithful to the original texts, Branagh and screenwriter Michael Green have taken a far looser approach to the process this time around.

Rowena Drake is the secondary antagonist in Agatha Christie's 1969 Hercule Poirot novel Hallowe'en Party and its 2010 adaptation in Agatha Christie's Poirot. She also serves as the main antagonist of Kenneth Branagh's 2023 film adaptation, A Haunting in Venice.

Perceiving Mary as a threat, Elizabeth had her confined in various castles and manor houses in the interior of England. After eighteen-and-a-half years in captivity, Mary was found guilty of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth in 1586 and was beheaded the following year at Fotheringhay Castle.

After last night's events, Anne has come to realize that Jackie's soul has switched places with Lukas on his previous trip to Queen Mary, leaving her kid lost inside the haunted ship. The RMS Queen Mary vessel has a rich history behind it.

Through the portrayal of Aschenbach, Death in Venice contains both an affirmation and resistance of the world of antibourgeois values. It is a critique in that it presents the idea that the artist who wants recognition must stay away from life, even though that distance leads to stagnation of the imagination.

I felt Poirot solved the mystery a bit too quickly. The pacing is a bit rushed at the end, and I'm not entirely convinced of how Poirot comes to the conclusions he does. Despite that, the film is a fun mystery/haunting story. A fun movie to watch, especially around Halloween.

The film isn't a horror movie like Talk to Me, but it has its fair share of intense scenes and creepy moments. There are shadowy sounds and figures lurking about, giving the film a frightful air. But while A Haunting in Venice is indeed scarier than the first two films, audiences shouldn't expect it to be too horrific.

Death in Venice presents several themes, including physical and moral decay, the conflict between intellect and inspiration, beauty, art, passion, and youth. The major messages lie within the relationship (mostly in the mind of Aschenbach) between the main character and the young boy, Tadzio.