Kenneth Branagh’s new film “A Haunting in Venice” is another mystery tale associated with Hercules Poirot, a Belgian detective character in many of the works of Agatha Christie. His two previous Poirot films, “Murder on the Orient Express” (2017) and “Death on the Nile” (2022), were a little too ponderous to have some fun with, and it was rather difficult for me to get accustomed to that huge mustache on Branagh’s face which might make Christie roll in her grave. However, this time, I finally get used to his interpretation of that brilliant Belgian detective, and I also like the spooky mood and nice stylish touches of the film in addition to finding its whodunnit plot more engaging in comparison.

Branagh and his screenplay writer Michael Green, who already worked with Branagh in his two previous Poirot films, made a wise choice in case of selecting another Christie novel to adapt. Compared to “Murder on the Orient Express” or “Death on the Nile”, “Hallowe’en Party” is a relatively minor work which is also one of those disappointingly sub-standard ones during Christie’s later years, so it was probably much less burdensome for Branagh and Green to change the story and characters here and there.

Their result is quite different from the novel although you can notice several references to the novel if you have read it (I read it again, in English this time, a few years ago, by the way). While the original story is set in a country town in England, Branagh and Green move it to Venice in the late 1940s, and several substantial characters in the novel are presented in very different appearances although their names remain mostly intact.

In case of Poirot, Branagh plays his character a little more seriously than before. As Venice and its citizens are still struggling to recover from the devastating effects of the World War II, Poirot is leading a reclusive life without any particular interest in using his little gray brain cells again, but then there comes an unexpected visitor eager to pull him out of his current retirement. That figure in question is a novelist named Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey, who dials down her usual comic persona to some degree here in this film), and she wrote a bunch of successful mystery novels based on Poirot, which incidentally made him a lot more famous around the world.

Oliver wants Poirot to attend a séance to be held at a shabby mansion belonging to a retired opera singer named Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly). As a man of reason and common sense, Poirot does not believe much in ghost or afterlife much, but he agrees to join her anyway because he is asked to debunk a medium invited to this séance, which is incidentally for reaching out to the ghost of Drake’s recently diseased daughter who died under a rather questionable circumstance.

As Poirot and Oliver come to Drake’s mansion, the eerie sense of dread and anxiety is gradually accumulated around the screen. As cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos frequently emphasizes the dark and moody textures of a rainy Halloween evening surrounding Venice, Hildur Guðnadóttir’s sparse bass score brings extra ominous quality to the screen, and we are more unnerved as a few disturbing things happen around Poirot shortly after he arrives at the mansion along with Oliver.

The tension surrounding the first half of the film culminates with the expected arrival of the medium, who is played by Michelle Yeoh with delicious gusto. Right from when he meets the medium, Poirot senses something fish about this figure, but then he cannot help but become quite disturbed just like many others around him when the séance leads to some questions about the death of Drake’s dead daughter. Was it just an accident or suicide? Was it actually involved with whatever is lurking somewhere inside the mansion? Or….

So far, I have been discreet about not telling too much to you, but I can tell you a bit about how the movie skillfully toys with those and several other possibilities in addition to even making Poirot question whether his shrewd mind is actually influenced by something in the mansion. As a matter of fact, there is even a little precocious kid who seems to see dead people just like that kid in “The Sixth Sense” (1999), though you may also wonder whether he has read too much of Edgar Allen Poe stories. While Jude Hill, a young actor who was the charming center of Branagh’s Oscar-winning film “Belfast” (2021), is poignant when his character shows more feelings behind his flat attitude later in the story, Jamie Dornan, who already worked with Hill in “Belfast”, is effective as the boy’s mentally struggling father, and Kelly Reilly and Camille Cottin, who plays a neurotic housekeeper working in the Drake’s mansion, also bring some life and personality to their respective supporting roles.

On the whole, “A Haunting in Venice” is a solid improvement one or two steps above Branagh’s two previous Poirot films. Branagh seems to be more comfortable with the story and characters in this time, and that is not so surprising how he had lots of stylish fun in “Dead Again” (1991), another mystery thriller film coupled with supernatural elements. I must say that I had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but, when Poirot is about to explain all to everyone else in the mansion (Is this a spoiler?), I paid full attention to him nonetheless in this time, and that is an achievement to say the least.