Truth Untold

A HAUNTING IN VENICE (2023) teaser trailer

Inspired by Agatha Christie’s novel Hallowe'en Party, and directed by and starring Oscar winner Kenneth Branagh as famed detective Hercule Poirot. A Haunting in Venice is set in eerie, post-World War II Venice on All Hallows’ Eve and is a terrifying mystery featuring the return of the celebrated sleuth, Hercule Poirot. Now retired and living in self-imposed exile in the world’s most glamorous city, Poirot reluctantly attends a séance at a decaying, haunted palazzo. When one of the guests is murdered, the detective is thrust into a sinister world of shadows and secrets.

A Haunting in Venice (2023) | Character posters

In 1947, Detective Hercule Poirot attends a séance in a Venetian palazzo. But when one of the guests is murdered, he takes on the case, only to find that there might be something beyond his own comprehension.

Inspired by Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party.

I genuinely loved this film.

The economy is shit, and going to the cinema is my one last luxury in life, so the fact that this was good made me so, so happy.

Kenneth Branagh always makes me feel slightly uneasy because of how well he played Mr. Neville/Devil in Rabbit Proof Fence, but I think it’s safe to say he has successfully re-written himself in my mind as Poirot ✨

I am still relatively new to watching films for Directors, and it’s wild looking through his work, realising how much I’ve actually seen, and how much I’ve missed.

His 2015 Cinderella helped piece my heart back together at 21, along with Sonam Kapoor’s (Shashanka Ghosh’s) Khoobsurat, but that’s a whole other thing.

Anyway, if you can, go watch - it’s exactly what you want it to be.

A Haunting in Venice (2023) | Alternate Posters

A collection of wonderful promotional artwork for Kenneth Branagh’s newest Poirot film.

Branagh gives us the kind of moustache that bears up to scrutiny when projected ten feet wide across the silver screen, with layering and graceful angles that hold and guide the eye. It’s a sculptural object that commands the frame and demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible.

We’ve seen this kind of controversial widescreen glow-up before of course:

Rowena Drake's Venetian Palazzo | A Haunting In Venice (2023)

A HAUNTING IN VENICE (2023)