Film

A Haunting in Venice

Name: A Haunting in Venice
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime
Released: 2023
Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Kyle Allen, Camille Cottin, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey

Branagh's third Poirot film trades his usual precision for Gothic atmosphere. A séance in a crumbling Venetian palace becomes a murder mystery wrapped in supernatural dread. It's slower, moodier, and visually sumptuous—less puzzle-box, more haunted-house thriller. For viewers who want their mysteries seasoned with genuine unease and don't mind a detective who's tired of detecting.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a gothic whodunit where the creaking atmosphere of crumbling rooms and candlelit suspicion matters as much as the puzzle, and you don't mind a detective who has stepped back from the game.

Skip it if you want a brisk, clue-driven puzzle; this one lingers on mood and slow-building dread, and its scares creep rather than jolt.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a moody, unhurried run of under two hours, with plenty of attention paid to faces, shadowed rooms and whispered conversations, and few easy laughs along the way.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

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Branagh's first Poirot is the gateway drug—impeccably constructed, visually gorgeous, and genuinely fun. If you loved the actor's interpretation here, this is where to start or return.

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Death on the Nile2022

Branagh doubles down on lavish visuals and romantic entanglement alongside the crime. It's generous with character and style, and the river setting is as much a character as any suspect.

But The pacing sprawls; at two hours it occasionally forgets it's meant to be thrilling rather than merely beautiful.

Knives Out2019

A modern mystery that respects its audience's intelligence while delivering pure entertainment. Rian Johnson orchestrates plot and character with virtuoso control, and it's genuinely funny without winking at the camera.

But If you want a straightforward whodunit, the constant tonal shifts and genre-play might feel too clever for their own sake.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from A Haunting in Venice

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Suspiria2018

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Gosford Park2001

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And Then There Were None2015

The BBC's adaptation of Agatha Christie's most audacious mystery. Ten strangers, an island, accusations of past crimes, and deaths that seem impossible to prevent. Tense, elegantly plotted, and genuinely haunting.

But The tone is bleak; there's little comfort here, and the body count arrives with grim inevitability rather than surprise.

The Killing2011

Danish noir that redefined crime television. A single murder unfolds across twenty episodes, with the investigation becoming an obsession that corrodes everyone it touches. Atmospheric, methodical, and deeply human.

But It's slow by design; if you need momentum and resolution, this will feel punishing rather than rewarding.

Only Murders in the Building2021

Comedians and Steve Martin investigating a murder in their apartment building. It's funny and mysterious in equal measure, with real warmth between characters who are genuinely fond of each other. Modern, clever, and oddly cosy.

But The mystery itself is less compelling than the character dynamics, which won't satisfy purists who want their whodunits watertight.

Crimson Peak2015

Guillermo del Toro's Gothic romance-mystery about a bride in a crumbling mansion full of secrets and ghosts. Visually stunning, genuinely eerie, with a plot that rewards your attention and a twist that lands.

But It's horror-adjacent; if you're expecting a cosy mystery, the dread and violence will feel tonally jarring.

The Woman in White2018

The BBC's adaptation of Wilkie Collins's Victorian mystery about secrets, asylums, and identity. It has the deliberate pacing of serial television from that era, but the plotting is genuinely intricate and the atmosphere is properly unsettling.

But It's from the 1990s, and that shows; the production values are modest and it moves at a pace modern audiences sometimes find glacial.

The Third Man1949

Both are mysteries set in decaying European cities where the setting itself becomes a character—a space where secrets nest in architecture and atmosphere matters more than exposition.

Carol Reed's post-war Vienna masterpiece. A man searches for his missing friend in a rubble-strewn city full of shadows and double-crosses. The cinematography is hypnotic, the plot is a perfect trap, and it moves like a dream.

But It's in black-and-white and fifty years old; the pacing is stately and the moral ambiguities won't comfort anyone seeking clear heroes or villains.

Phantom Thread2017

Like A Haunting in Venice, it uses a closed world (a palazzo, an atelier) to trap characters and viewers in psychological games where surfaces hide darker mechanics operating underneath.

Paul Thomas Anderson's film about a fashion designer and his muse in 1950s London. It looks like a romance but it's actually a thriller, and then something else entirely. Hypnotic, poisonous, and structured like a trap closing.

But It's glacially paced and emotionally cold; if you need warmth or likeable characters, the psychological manipulation will feel exhausting rather than gripping.