20th Century Fox released a movie adaptation of yet another Agatha Christie book. A Haunting in Venice was originally published as Hallowe’en Party in 1969, yet released as a movie September 15, 2023.
The book and movie vary greatly, as jokingly stated by writer and producer Michael Green in a foreword of a recent edition: “I did willingly, purposefully alter the plot of a beloved Agatha Christie mystery novel for personal gain.” The plot being so different, a murder taking place at a Halloween party was all that was taken from the book into the movie.
The trailer lacked any small description of what the movie was going to be about. Trailers are created to intrigue people about the movie, yet this one shifted the expected genre. “It was more of a mystery/thriller than a horror movie, which I expected after seeing the advertisements,” said Skyline Senior Lily Guthrie. As an adaptation for a Hercule Poirot Mystery, the urge to entice people with horror did not seem necessary.
Cinematically the movie was filled with gorgeous attention to detail surrounding the house and streets where it was filmed. The varying camera angles created large impacts on the intensity of scenes. Deep colors that the film presented set the eerie tone of the unsuspecting house at night, without being too dark to see the characters or the actions. The background sound track also presented the audience with the sense of dread, the music being fit to each scene.
The book is set in Woodleigh Common, an area near Manchester, outside London. Poirot is brought in by Adriadne Oliver in order to assist in an investigation of a murder. Rowena Drake was hosting an 11-plus Halloween party, during the festivities a young girl, Joyce, is murdered by being drowned in the pail that was used to bob for apples. The reason for her murder is a statement of her saying she had witnessed a murder a few years back.
The movie, however, is set in Venice on the watery streets. The investigative Poirot is brought in again by Adriadne Oliver, but in order to disprove a medium who was requested by Rowena Drake in order to communicate with her departed daughter. The location, reason for Poirot, girl who was murdered, and reason for murder are all different. The murderer is the same in the book and movie even if the intentions were varying.
Many devoted Agatha Christie readers have been offended at the aggressive adaptation to the beloved book, yet the cinematic universe 20th Century Studios has created retains a large following. Small plot and character adaptations are common in films. The drastic changes presented in the book hang on to a sliver of the eloquently written book in order to include Hercule Poirot as a main character in a “series” of adaptations.
