Film

Death on the Nile

Branagh's second glossy Poirot outing swaps the snowbound train for a sun-drenched Egyptian river cruise, but the recipe is the same: gorgeous scenery, a wealthy cast of liars, and a fussy Belgian genius untangling them. It's comfort-food mystery — tourism dressed as tension. Best for a lazy evening when you want a solvable puzzle rather than genuine dread.

TMDb rating6.4

If you liked this

Murder on the Orient Express2017

Branagh and his moustache tackle another Christie classic aboard a snowbound train — same lavish production, same fussy genius, if anything a tighter, better-constructed puzzle than the Nile.

But It's essentially the same formula you just watched, so if the first didn't grab you, this won't either.

Murder on the Orient Express poster

Knives Out2019

Rian Johnson reinvents the country-house whodunit with real wit, a starry cast having a ball, and a structure clever enough to reward a second viewing.

But It's contemporary and irreverent where Christie is stately — the jokes and modern setting might jar if you wanted pure period comfort.

Knives Out poster

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery2022

Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc returns for an even glossier, more satirical puzzle box, this time skewering tech billionaires on a Greek island.

But The satire is broad and topical, which dates fast and can feel smug if you're not already in on the joke.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

And Then There Were None1945

Same author, same 'trapped with a killer among wealthy strangers' engine, decades before Christie got the lavish colour-and-scenery treatment — this is the bare skeleton the Nile dresses up.

The first great Christie film adaptation — ten strangers stranded on an island, picked off one by one, shot in stark black-and-white with real menace under the wit.

But No detective to lean on, no travelogue glamour, and the 1940s pacing and theatrical performances take some adjusting to.

And Then There Were None poster
More like this (8)

Gosford Park2001

Robert Altman's country-house ensemble piece is the sophisticated cousin of the genre — upstairs-downstairs class drama disguised as a murder mystery, with a script by Julian Fellowes.

But The mystery is almost incidental; if you want a tight, solvable puzzle rather than a slow character tapestry, this will frustrate.

Gosford Park poster

Evil Under the Sun1982

Peter Ustinov's Poirot investigates on a sun-baked island resort, all Riviera glamour and bitchy one-liners — a direct ancestor to the Branagh films' holiday-set spectacle.

But The pacing is stagier and slower by modern standards, and Ustinov's Poirot is a much gentler, less flamboyant presence.

Evil Under the Sun poster

The Mirror Crack'd1980no page yet

More Agatha Christie, this time with Miss Marple and a cast of aging Hollywood stars turning a village murder into gossipy, glamorous fun.

But It swaps Poirot's continental flair for cosy English village texture, a real shift in tone if you came for exotic settings.

A Haunting in Venice2023no page yet

Branagh's third Poirot outing ditches the sunny travelogue for something genuinely eerie — a seance-gone-wrong gothic chiller that's the strongest of his trilogy.

But The horror atmosphere is a real tonal departure; if you liked the Nile for its brightness, this is deliberately gloomy.

Clue1985

The board game turned into a gleefully silly ensemble farce, with six suspects, six endings, and pratfalls instead of prestige.

But It's broad slapstick rather than a fair-play puzzle, so if you want to actually solve the case, you'll be disappointed.

Clue poster

Crooked House2017no page yet

A lesser-known Christie adaptation with a terrific cast (Glenn Close, Gillian Anderson) and one of her nastier, twistier family plots.

But It's a much smaller production with less polish, and it never quite finds the confidence of the big-budget Poirot films.

Broadchurch2013

Same 'everyone's a suspect in a close-knit group' machinery as Poirot's boat full of secrets, but stripped of glamour and comedy to show the genre played completely straight.

A small English seaside town is torn apart by a child's murder, and the show cares more about grief, suspicion and community fallout than any tidy solution.

But It's slow, bleak and emotionally heavy — there's no fun in the whodunit here, and the ending devastates rather than satisfies.

Broadchurch poster

The Last of Sheila1973

Same setup — glittering people trapped on a boat, playing at murder until it stops being a game — but swaps Christie's cosiness for real teeth and Hollywood self-loathing.

A cabal of Hollywood insiders is invited onto a yacht for a 'murder game' that turns genuinely vicious — campy, catty, and far nastier than anything Christie would allow.

But It's mean-spirited and dated in its excess, with less polish and more spite than the Branagh films' comfortable glamour.

The Last of Sheila poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by