How Kenneth Branagh transformed a classic Agatha Christie mystery into a supernatural Venetian thriller
In short: In his third Hercule Poirot outing, Kenneth Branagh trades traditional whodunit tropes for a gothic, death-haunted atmosphere. Set in post-war Venice, the film blends Agatha Christie’s source material with supernatural horror, challenging the legendary detective to solve a murder while confronting the ghosts of his own past and the palazzo’s dark history.
Released in 2023, A Haunting in Venice is a departure from the previous installments in Branagh’s Poirot series, Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. Loosely adapted from the 1969 novel Hallowe'en Party, the film follows a retired Poirot in 1947 as he is drawn into a séance at a crumbling palazzo. The plot centers on the death of Alicia Drake, whose mother, Rowena, attempts to contact her spirit through a medium. As a storm traps the guests inside, the investigation uncovers deep-seated trauma from World War I and a series of murders linked to the palazzo’s past as an orphanage.
The production design was a massive undertaking, utilizing both location shooting in Venice and elaborate sets at Pinewood Studios in England. To capture the authentic Venetian aesthetic, the team drew inspiration from historic landmarks like the Doge's Palace and the Palazzo Pisani Gritti. A one-third scale model was even constructed in Reading to simulate water effects against the palace walls. These visual choices were intended to ground the film’s supernatural elements in a tangible, decaying reality, reflecting the characters' internal grief and the psychological fallout of the war.
Critical reception was generally favorable, with many reviewers praising the film’s striking cinematography and atmospheric tone, though some noted that the focus on production values occasionally overshadowed character development. The film grossed $122.3 million worldwide, proving that audiences were receptive to this darker, genre-bending approach. With executive producers and studio heads already discussing potential future adaptations of Christie’s work, including And Then There Were None and Hercule Poirot's Christmas, the success of this project suggests that the franchise may continue to experiment with different tonal shifts in the years to come.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: A Haunting in Venice
- Also: Wikidata — A Haunting in Venice · CC0
- Also: Wikidata — A Haunting in Venice · CC0
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