I watched the latest of the Poirot movies starring Kenneth Branagh and I have to say, this was my favourite one! While I enjoyed Murder on the Orient Express, I thought it had a bit too much backstory that was not really canon (or was that the second movie?). Death on the Nile, on the other hand, changed the story far too much for this fan’s liking.

Luckily, A Haunting in Venice sidestepped the problems of Death on the Nile by being largely original. Although the movie is supposed to be loosely based on Hallowe’en Party (which I’ve not read and will definitely do so soon), the movie changed the location and the identity (though not name) murder victim, which quite substantially changes the story. As such, I was able to enjoy this as a largely original story, which removes the pesky “HOW COULD THEY DO THAT TO THE BOOK?” fear.

Other things I enjoyed:

• Michelle Yeoh did a marvellous performance as the medium! To make things better, Michelle Yeoh is from Malaysia so there was a sense of “hey, a local-to-me actress” when she came on scene!
• The atmosphere of the movie – it’s set on a stormy night in Venice and it thoroughly spooked me.
• We have less backstory on Poirot, but the movie made a few good callbacks to the first two movies which might have “broken” him as a detective. I quite enjoyed the short discussion on what could make him stop investigating murder.
• I also particularly enjoyed the characters of Dr Leslie Ferrier and his precocious son, Leopold. Dr Ferrier’s PTSD from WWII was intense and ground the movie in the post-WWII years and brought the horror of the war very close. It was a good callback to this Poirot’s backstory, though I still think Poirot’s backstory was overexplained in the earlier movies.

The movie was so much fun that I went to read the book it’s loosely based on – Hallowe’en Party. And wow, they truly are different! For one thing, the setting has changed from England to Venice – and I actually agree with it, since the Palazzo that the movie was shot in was integral to the creepy atmosphere of the film.

While there were a few callbacks to the book, like apples being everywhere and the use of the same names for the various characters. In particular, I enjoyed what they did with Leopold’s character – in the book, he’s a minor character who’s too smart for his own britches and not particularly likeable. In the movie, he started out as a character who seemed too smart for his own britches (and somewhat unlikeable) but quickly gained sympathy through his caring relationship with his father, who clearly suffers from PTSD.

But these similarities are few and largely superficial. While both A Haunting in Venice and Hallowe’en Party deal with the topic of an ageing Poirot, the movie focuses more on how war changes us and the tense relationship between family members. On the other hand, the book is more of a lament about the negative effects of modernisation – it felt like Christie was feeling increasingly lost by the world and expressing some confusion about how much society has changed. I mean, it was a Poirot book without Poirot manufacturing a match between two young people, and Christie wrote some pretty cruel murders and unlikeable people here. Even though I was entertained by Hallowe’en Party, I wouldn’t call it cosy or uplifting.

And you know what? I think the film did the right thing to change things completely. Either theme could work if handled well, but having watched both Death on the Nile and A Haunting in Venice, I think a loosely followed movie adaptation is worse than a movie that doesn’t follow the book. It’s much easier to enjoy the movie as a separate thing when so much is changed, including the title. Death on the Nile was frustrating for me because many major points were kept but others changed and I couldn’t help but compare the book to the movie.

As one of, if not the most famous Golden Age Mystery writers, Christie has a reputation for cosy mysteries. But a closer look at her oeuvre, like Hallowe’en Party and A Murder is Announced, show us that she wasn’t all that cosy or hopeful about society. So darker adaptations, like the 2018 BBC one on the ABC Murders and this movie do fit in with her brand. And for me, I find it easier to enjoy new stories based of her works than one that tries to follow half the book and do something ‘creative’ with the other half. (I also suspect I will enjoy faithful adaptations but I need to watch one first!)

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