A Haunting in Venice Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

A Haunting in Venice Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 11, 2023

There's a problem with Agatha Christie tales, at least when it comes to repeated adaptations of her work, and that's simply that her plots are so ingenious that once someone is familiar with them, there's no easy way forward in terms of how to offer "aware" audiences a new and ostensibly improved version without jettisoning the incredibly memorable aspects of the original. That quandary probably became most evident with regard to Agatha Christie's Marple, which had to contend with the pre-existing (and quite memorable) Miss Marple series, where some of the "revisions" to Christie's inimitable stories were actually kind of gobsmacking at times (who knew there were so many closeted gay people running around St. Mary's Mead?). But even the much older Margaret Rutherford Marple films beginning with Murder She Said... and moving through Murder Ahoy! took significant liberties with Christie's originals (to the point that two of the Rutherford Marple entries were actually based on Poirot stories!). Michael Green, who has previously adapted both Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile featuring Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot, and who serves a similar function with this film, is on hand in an interesting supplement included on this disc discussing the very challenge of trying to bring something "new" to the table while honoring the legacy of Christie, a legacy which at least intermittently seems to be guarded by interested parties (one assumes heirs and assigns) wanting to make sure nothing is tinkered with too much, even if that means there's more than a whiff of familiarity to some adaptations.

Green may have been helped, at least somewhat, in that A Haunting in Venice is based (more or less, anyway) on one of Christie's lesser known tomes, Hallowe'en Party, from 1969. This at least was a Poirot entry, so there's no "bait and switch" with regard to its central investigator, but several other elements, including location, have rather vigorously "adjusted" to the point that, at least based on Hallowe'en Party itself, this could very well be thought of as an "original" Poirot screenplay. While several character names from Christie's original have been ported over to this entry, they're not necessarily even close to Christie's own formulations, though that obviously excepts two focal characters, Poirot himself and his frequent nemesis/friend, novelist Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey, rather spry but maybe not able to totally erase memories of Zoe Wanamaker portraying the same character in the long running David Suchet Poirot).

I've mentioned in some previous reviews how the "disappearance" of the apostrophe in Hallowe'en may make its actual meaning kind of hidden, but A Haunting in Venice plays on the All Hallow's Eve aspect of the holiday insofar as it is supposedly the time when the "veil" between the living and the dead is at its thinnest, allowing some sort of communication between the two realms. Of course a diehard rationalist like Hercule Poirot isn't about to go in for any such "gobbledygook", but A Haunting in Venice, even if it does predictably come down more or less squarely on the side of rational explanations for seeming paranormal phenomena, plays with the idea of Poirot confronting some sort of force and/or entity that he can't control with his "little gray cells". This all comes into play when Ariadne shows up and invites Poirot to a Hallowe'en Party for local (Venice) orphans, which will be followed by a seance conducted by famous medium Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh).

The palazzo where the party and seance are held is thought to be haunted, including by its troubled owner, Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly), a formerly famous opera singer who has withdrawn after the suicide of her daughter Alicia the previous year in that very palazzo. Suffice it to say that while the party for the orphans is spooky enough, things get downright poltergeist-y when Joyce evidently starts channeling Alicia, who claims she was murdered. Also suffice it to say that in short standard Poirot order, there's a pretty quick and gruesome death that follows, not necessarily the last time one of the ensemble cast will meet his or her fate. Even Poirot isn't exempt from the killer's spree, and has a dangerous moment vis a vis the Hallowe'en tradition of bobbing for apples, one of several plot elements lifted wholescale from Hallowe'en Party, but put into a completely different context here.

A Haunting in Venice has the typical assortment of Christie "suspects", all of whom have various backstories and at least passing reasons for wanting to kill those who end up dead, but Michael Green is able to rather artfully distract suspicion from what's actually going on, though part of that distraction is Poirot's seeming experience of the "unknown", which is of course not all that it is initially depicted to be. In some ways, this is the most stylish Branagh Poirot outing yet, with Branagh the director opting for all sorts of weirdly skewed framings with wide lenses that purposefully distort things, obviously hoping to mimic the off kilter things Poirot seems to be experiencing.

A Haunting in Venice Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A Haunting in Venice is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Studios and Disney / Buena Vista with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Captured with Sony CineAlta cameras at resolutions of up to 6K, and finished with a 4K DI, this is perhaps rather surprisingly the first Branagh Poirot outing which is not being offered in 4K UHD (as of the writing of this review). That said, this 1080 presentation is incredibly appealing virtually all of the time, with beautifully secure detail levels despite a number of low light sequences and other moments that have been graded either toward kind of buttery yellows or in fact in monochrome black and white for all important flashbacks and/or reveals. As mentioned above, Branagh and cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos opt for any number of crazy framings, often with things like fisheye lenses employed, something that obviously intentionally distorts the image, but which, for example, can offer extreme close-ups at the corner of the frame where fine detail is exceptional. Some of the stylized CGI is arguably a bit on the soft side, but the chaotic storm scenes at the climax are quite well done and contribute to general feeling of unease.

A Haunting in Venice Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

A Haunting in Venice has an extremely robust DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track that may actually provoke laughter along with unavoidable startle scares due to a rather comical (but incredibly effective) sound design which at least intermittently elevates mundane sounds like doors opening to ear shattering levels (we won't even get into the cockatoo that is part and parcel of the proceedings). Surround activity is consistent and often spookily evocative, as in the repeated motif (musical, in fact) of Poirot hearing a supposedly ghostly girl singing in the distance. Some of Hildur Guðnadóttir's scoring choices struck me as downright odd (including a weirdly languid set of string cues right at the climax), but the music also engages the side and rear channels winningly. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional subtitles in several languages are available.

A Haunting in Venice Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Murder, Death, and Haunting (HD; 26:08) is a fun featurette with quite a few interviews and some appealing behind the scenes footage. Plus its title uses the Oxford Comma.


• Deleted Scenes (HD; 8:14)

Additionally, a digital copy is included and packaging features a slipcover.

A Haunting in Venice Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I have been a near lifelong fan of Agatha Christie, which may make me a bit of a curmudgeon for some of these latter day adaptations, probably one reason why the Branagh Murder on the Orient Express didn't particularly strike my fancy. While I gave the Branagh Death on the Nile the same overall middling score I gave to the first film, it was probably at least an incremental improvement on Murder on the Orient Express, but I have to say of all the Branagh outings thus far, A Haunting in Venice is by far my favorite, which may be damning with faint praise. Michael Green really hasn't ported over much from Hallowe'en Party other than teaming Poirot with Ariadne Oliver, and utilizing several of the same character names and a couple of "set pieces" (shorn of their original context), but this is a neatly wending tale that offers a fair number of surprises along the way. Technical merits are solid, and the few supplements appealing. Recommended.