Kenneth Branagh analyzes a trailer of Haunting In Venice: The Return of Poirot, Michelle Yeoh and Spectral Palazzos

If you’ve ever wondered what Hercule Poirot would think if he were immersed in, say, the Insidious universe, your messages on the other side have been answered. The new trailer for Sir Kenneth Branagh’s third Poirot film, A ghost in Venice – following Murder on the Orient Express AND death on the Nile – shows everyone’s favorite Belgian pogonophile drawn into a world of demons, spirits and creepy children. A ghost in Venice takes place on a long, dark night: Halloween 1947, to be exact. In the City of Masks, a palace with a dark past brings together people looking for answers to the mysterious disappearance of a girl, a group that includes Poirot himself. Typically skeptical, he is forced to question what is real and what is imaginary, and whether there are forces beyond his formidable intellect.

It is based on a later story by Agatha Christie, Halloween party, the one that hasn’t been adapted often and that invited screenwriter Michael Green to experience horror to the fullest. “When I read his script, it was really scary,” says Branagh. Empire when he jumps on the phone to disarm the trailer. Grab your rosaries – things are about to get creepy.

yes we channel

Christie’s story was originally set in the English village of Woodleigh Common, but the grandeur and slightly ghostly energy of Venice seemed perfect for a story that invites spirits to cross the border between worlds. “It’s exotic and gothic, it’s mysterious,” Branagh says. “Every day this city fills up and empties completely.” After Murder on the Orient Express AND death on the Nile, seemed like the right time to send Poirot to investigate “a darker world and vision,” says Branagh. “It’s very, very showy and full of shadows, just like Venice.”

paranormal activity

Lightning! Scary house! Weird children! It’s classic ghost story bingo when we get to Venice Samhain, a time when spirits can be summoned by those who know how. “Poirot’s idea may be the pinnacle of absurdity,” says Branagh. “And I think he’s irresistibly drawn to the idea of ​​exhibiting it. But when you’re isolated, perhaps in a haunted mansion, suddenly it can be so much more: during this long, dark night of the soul, the action that unfolds over a single night full of murders, can challenge your own. .. beliefs that there is nothing there. Murder on the Insidious Express? AS.

in the haunted house

A haunted house movie needs a stellar haunted house, and this particular mansion is one of many that fell on hard times and was remodeled when the family that owned it couldn’t keep up with the upkeep. “In this case, the mansion has become an orphanage, and that’s part of what ties it to a tragedy, which could be a tragic mistake involving the children of that orphanage who couldn’t leave it when they got there. Necessary . . a,” says Branagh. , and you will find out what it is when you see the film. .”

The creepy isn’t just summoned for the movie. While searching for polazzi to film, Branagh recalls suggesting locations that were flatly rejected by the local crew. “‘No, you can’t,'” they said when I asked about shooting in a polazzo. “Nobody can. And I’d say, ‘Why? And they were like, ‘Because it’s haunted.’ No, but it’s actually haunted, and the last 12 owners of this mansion are dead, all by suicide. There’s enough in this town to make you a little nervous when someone invites you to a party. session”.

strange sister

Fresh off her Oscar win for All everywhere at onceMichelle Yeoh is at the center of all supernatural happenings at the palace. She plays a character named Joyce Reynolds who is attracted to this building because she has heard voices and a character, Alina Drake, whose son, under suspicious circumstances, has lost her mother. [Alina] think, she’s ready to talk to him,” says Branagh. But it won’t be easy. And Michelle Yeoh brings this great gravitas to the role of someone who finds it possible and believes she can talk to the dead. could be.

He is an orphan and plays.

There’s nothing like a bunch of creepy kids wearing masks to amp up the weirdness factor. They are orphans who “are being invited to a Halloween party by American soldiers who have brought chocolate and Halloween and are trying to start helping the city and its children recover from the nightmare of war,” says Branagh. If you’ve been to Venice and searched for Piazza San Marco during Carnival, this will sound familiar. “People come in in cloaks and masks and really get the sinister pleasure of being hidden like that,” says the director. “So in our story, this tension between what’s funny, what’s sinister, and finally what’s supernatural, that’s what’s behind the presence of the masked people. Which in some cases may or may not carry supernatural backgrounds. Nothing could be more supernatural than this particularly creepy boy hiding in Poirot’s bathroom. Who is that? “If I told you,” Branagh said, “I might have to kill you.” Noted.

One last case?

We meet Poirot sometime after the events of death on the Nile, in the hollow of the wave and uncertain of itself. “He’s convinced he’s retired,” Branagh said. “He’s lost faith, he said, but Michael had an idea that murder and the possibility of ghosts would be irresistible to a man with that mustache and that nose that he reeked of guilt.” This waste of time and sadness marked Poirot and upset his view of his world. “Along the way, he has lost friends. We know from his background that his war experience also isolated him. So I guess he’s not a believer anymore. He is a man whose confidence and composure have been shaken by the intense and terrifying pressure his life has placed upon him. It is this emotional state that perfectly complements such a supernatural mystery. “He’s engaged here in what he says he doesn’t believe: in the other world. God, think, disappoint him. But Poirot in this movie is in a supernatural thriller and the normal rules don’t apply.“

mustache a question

You may be sad, but Poirot’s mustache is back in all its glory, as glorious and dazzling as ever. Is magnificent. “We’ve experimented a bit during this series of films, to the point where we think he’d do it himself,” says Branagh. “He’s quite open about his vanity and his relationship with hair dye and I think he would cross the seasons in terms of the exoticism of the mustache.” It is especially useful in a city where people hide their identities and intentions with masks. “I think you wear it as his cape, as if it’s his superpower,” says Branagh. “And if ever a man with a mask-like mustache had a city he should have been in, it’s Venice.” These mustaches are a protection: they strengthen him, alienate others, allow him to hide, ironically and remorsefully, behind himself. Van Helsing has his bets. Ghostbusters have their own proton packs. Poirot has his place. These spirits don’t stand a chance.

A Haunting In Venice hits UK cinemas from 15th September