Parents' Guide to

A Haunting in Venice

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Stark, spooky Hercule Poirot murder mystery has violence.

Movie PG-13 2023 103 minutes
A Haunting in Venice Movie Poster: Five people stand in a circle against a black background, looking down

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 14+

Based on 8 parent reviews

Matthew J.
Matthew J. Parent
September 16, 2023
age 15+

Boring and Dark

I liked the first two movies in the modern series, but I found this one really boring. The whole movie is dark in both appearance and theme. The suspense was more of jump-scare type elements than through the story. By the end, I didn't really care who was guilty; I just wanted the movie over. When I left I told my wife, "There was not one thing about that movie that I really enjoyed." Semi- spoiler alert - Because you know this is a Hercule Poirot movie, you know that he will uncover how the "spiritual/ghost/haunting" things are really being done, but there is still a bunch of those elements that have a scary/dark/spiritual theme. Just note that if you have young or sensitive kids.
doctora
doctora Parent of 7-year-old
October 7, 2023
age 13+

A little creepy but still very Christie

I have an IMMENSE soft spot for Branagh and Agatha Christie adaptations. I loved Murder on the Orient Express and enjoyed Death on the Nile immensely. This outing of Poirot is tonally different from the others. It is a bit creepier and has the performers ratchet up the performances a bit, but I was still enthralled, not sure who had dunit and was well invested in the story, tone and cinematography. I hope they continue making them because I will continue to show up to be misled and taken on a Christie ride.
See all 8 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In A HAUNTING IN VENICE, Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) is retired and living in Venice. He's hired a former police officer, Vitale Portfoglio (Riccardo Scamarcio), as a bodyguard to ward off desperate people looking for sleuthing services. Then Poirot is visited by bestselling mystery author Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), who has a proposition. She's working on a book about a famous medium, Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh). She can't figure out how Reynolds does her supernatural seances and wants Poirot to accompany her to see if he can find anything. They attend a Halloween party for orphans at the palazzo of Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly), who, after the party, wishes to contact the spirit of her daughter, Alicia. Alicia had fallen from the balcony and drowned; it may or may not have been murder. Lo and behold, more murders start happening, and Poirot goes to work seeking the facts and finding a suspect. But something is wrong: Poirot himself has begun hearing voices and seeing ghosts.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (8 ):
Kids say (12 ):

Stark and spooky, Branagh's third Poirot movie successfully adopts a whole new atmosphere. It's less exotic and edgier, more haunted; it's a tense, thoughtful, and satisfying mystery. Murder on the Orient Express had a fluid use of space aboard a cramped, moving train, while Death on the Nile used bright, open spaces. A Haunting in Venice, which is mainly set indoors, during a storm, and in the late hours of Halloween night -- when the barrier between the living and the dead is said to be at its thinnest -- plays with more shadowy, angular, and even hallucinogenic filmmaking.

Author Agatha Christie published the source novel, Hallowe'en Party, in 1969, more than 30 years after the Orient Express and Nile novels, perhaps suggesting a hard-earned fatalism, which Branagh attaches to this movie's fabric. He seems freshly inspired, and his direction flourishes through Christie's material. As ever, he's equally adept with his actors, himself giving an appealingly wounded performance while slowly stripping away the other characters' veneers of protection, revealing their painful pasts. The mystery itself is clever and effective, though it comes almost with a sense of resignation; there's no joy in solving this murder. Even so, A Haunting in Venice leaves off with a sense of promise.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about A Haunting in Venice's violence. How much is actually shown? What's the impact of the violence that's not shown? Is that thrilling, or shocking?

  • What's the appeal of scary movies? Why is it sometimes fun to be scared?

  • Which characters are "good," and which are "bad" -- or is it hard to tell? Why do films often want viewers to see people as one way or another, rather than showing humans' capacity to be both?

  • Like Poirot, do you believe that there are simple, black-and-white solutions for every problem? Why, or why not?

  • Why do you think author Agatha Christie and Poirot have such enduring appeal?

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