Utah! Get Ready for Spooky Season With This Classic Detective

Just in time for the spooky season, Agatha Christie’s mustached detective is back and in Italy investigating the haunting of a palazzo. 

If you don’t know anything about Agatha Christie, here’s a quick rundown on the author who according to Agatha Christie.com is the best-selling novelist of all time.  

Born in 1890, Dame Agatha Christie is known as not just a writer, but also as a traveler, playwriter, wife, mother, and surfer. 

According to Agatha Christie.com, her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation.  

PBS viewers will recognize her detective characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple played by David Suchet and Joan Hickson. 

Kenneth Branagh took on the mustached mantel of Poirot in 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express and 2020’s Death on the Nile. 

In A Haunting in Venice, Branagh’s Poirot lives a quiet and retired life in Venice, Italy. The film is based on Christie’s 1969 novel Hallowe’en Party. 

When I saw the trailer for A Haunting in Venice, I knew I needed to see it. You see, Italy is one of my favorite countries that I’ve visited, and Venice is one of my favorite cities I’ve visited.  

Venice makes a wonderful backdrop for the mysterious and atmospheric. Venice is a city with mystery at its core. Whether it’s the revelers behind masks at Carnival, the fog that rises off the Adriatic, or even the mere existence of the city itself, Venice is steeped in mystery and atmosphere. 

A Haunting in Venice is the perfect movie to kick off the spooky season. 

Branagh’s Poirot is thrust into the world of a haunted palazzo when an author friend, played brilliantly by Tina Fey, asks him to come to a Halloween party at the palazzo and stay to investigate a psychic at a séance afterward. 

Once the séance begins, so does the murder and mystery. Michelle Yeoh plays the role of the psychic, Joyce Reynolds, with no fear and full of soul.  

The palazzo is a character itself and the production design team builds just the right set full of atmosphere that allows the cast to show the oppression of a haunted home full of haunted people. The camera work truly makes the palazzo oppressive, suffocating, and creepy. 

Icelandic composer Hildur Gudnadottir sets the tone with the perfect music for a psychological thriller set in post-World War 2 Italy. 

Full of excellent acting and atmosphere, I’m giving A Haunting in Venice an 8/10.