Retired and living in the world’s most glamorous city, Hercule Poirot reluctantly attends a séance at a decaying, haunted palazzo, where a guest is murdered, thrusting him into a sinister world of shadows and secrets. A film by Kenneth Branagh, starring Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan, Jude Hill, Kyle Allen, Camille Cottin, Ali Khan, Emma Laird, Kelly Reilly, Riccardo Scamarcio, and Michelle Yeoh.

A murder mystery film loosely based on Agatha Christie‘s novel, Hallowe’en Party, first published in November 1969. The novel follows Hercule Poirot and the mystery novelist Ariadne Oliver, who attend a Hallowe’en party at Woodleigh Common, a small village in England, where a young girl named Joyce Reynolds claims to have witnessed a murder. When the girl is found drowned in an apple-bobbing bucket, Poirot must unravel the mystery of her death and determine whether she actually witnessed a crime.

Set in 1947, a decade after the events of DEATH on the NILE, Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) is currently retired and living a quiet life in the city of canals, away from the limelight and murder cases. Despite his resolve to leave his detective days behind, dozens of people line up outside his place each day, pleading for his help in solving their mysteries. Some of them are even violent, but Poirot is well-protected by his former police officer bodyguard, Vitale Portfoglio (Riccardo Scamarcio).

Hercule Poirot’s solitude is short-lived. He receives a surprise visit from his old friend, Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), a world-famous mystery novelist who often claims to be the smartest person in the world. She invites him to a Halloween party at a decaying, haunted palazzo, where a secret séance will be performed by the psychic medium Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh). Ariadne believes Joyce to be a fraud, but she needs Poirot’s help to expose her tricks.

Ariadne Oliver is a mystery novelist and friend of Hercule Poirot who assists him in his cases through her knowledge of the criminal mind. She claims to have feminine intuition, but it often leads her astray. She is fond of apples, which plays a role in the novel Hallowe’en Party.

The faded palazzo belongs to opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly), who recently lost her only daughter, Alicia (Rowan Robinson), to suicide after a mental breakdown. Alicia’s breakdown was reportedly triggered by a curse connected to the spirits of children who perished within the palazzo’s ancient walls, as well as the breakup of her engagement to American chef Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen). Desperate for solace, Rowena seeks to contact Alicia’s spirit through a medium.

In attendance at the séance are Hercule Poirot, Ariadne Oliver, Rowena Drake, her housekeeper Olga Seminoff (Camille Cottin), family doctor Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan), his son Leopold (Jude Hill), Joyce Reynold’s assistant Desdemona Holland (Emma Laird), and Maxime Gerard, who arrives with a mysterious invitation card that Rowena insists she did not send.

During the séance, Hercule Poirot exposes Joyce Reynolds’s fraudulent methods of manipulating her audience into believing she can communicate with the spirits of the dead. He also reveals her second assistant, Nicholas Holland (Ali Khan). Suddenly, Joyce begins speaking in the voice of Alicia Drake, claiming that she was murdered, not that she committed suicide. However, the séance ends before she can reveal the murderer’s identity.

Joyce invites Hercule Poirot to attend a second séance the following evening, if he wishes to learn the identity of the true killer. However, Joyce is found murdered later that night. Poirot suspects that the killer of Joyce Reynolds and Alicia Drake is among the guests who attended the séance.

A well-crafted whodunit detective story is a cinematic joy to behold. This film features a stellar cast, top-notch cinematography, and hauntingly beautiful music by Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, who has achieved remarkable success in recent years. The screenplay ingeniously blends and references multiple sources to create something that is both fresh and familiar, like it could have been written by Agatha Christie herself.

A HAUNTING in VENICE was theatrically released in the United States on 15 September 2023 by 20th Century Studios.