In 1947, post-war Venice, Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) lives a quiet life with his bodyguard who keeps pesky would-be clients away from disturbing the ex-detective’s peaceful retirement. On Halloween, however, mystery writer Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) convinces Poirot to attend a séance at the palazzo of opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly) to help debunk medium Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) in her attempts to connect with Rowena’s deceased daughter.

Based on Agatha Christie’s little-knownHallowe’en Party (1969), the movie is starkly different from Kenneth Branagh’s previous Poirot outings. The excellent Murder on the Orient Express (2017) started the franchise with a bang, with a murder mystery to end the genre. As the bigger follow-up, Death on the Nile (2022) was less well received, this outing consequentially pares back the budget and locations. Gone are the spanning vistas: instead, our story is confined to a gothic, haunted house, with Dutch angles and wide-angled lenses lending to the sense of paranoia and unease in the extravagant but crowded and decaying setting. Poirot must solve the mystery of past death and current murder for his own satisfaction and to prove to Oliver that he still has his killer instincts despite his self-exile. The dread and mental suffering permeating this supernatural gothic horror is representative of a shared trauma coming out of WWII; ghosts of loved ones passed and regrets are ever-present.

Verdict: While not as cinematic as previous outings, it is refreshing to see some risks being taken with the genre. 3 stars.

Luke McWilliams, themovieclub.net.

Viewed at Dendy Cinemas.