A Haunting in Venice(2023)

Submitted by Evil Ed

Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly) was slowly poisoning her own daughter Alicia (Rowan Robinson), so Alicia couldn’t marry Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen).

When Alicia wakes up one night in distress, Olga (Camille Cotton) inadvertently gives her a huge dose of the poisonous honey extracted from the rhododendrons in the garden mixed with her tea. Alicia dies, and Rowena defenestrates Alicia to make her death look like a suicide.

Rowena tries to drown Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) mistaking him for Joyce (Michelle Yeoh). Rowena then defenestrates Joyce so she also dies impaled on the statue in the same way as Alicia.

Rowena also murdered Dr. Ferrier (Jamie Dornan).

Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) and Vitale (Riccardo Scamarcio) conspired with Joyce to create the entire scenario of “The Children’s Curse” to try to stump Poirot. Oliver was going to use Poirot’s failure to solve the supernatural elements supposedly connected with Alicia’s death, as the plot for her new book. The supernatural sightings that Poirot experiences throughout the movie came from a few drops of the poisonous hallucinogen that Rowena slipped into his tea.

The whole movie was essentially set into motion because Dr. Ferrier’s son, Leopold (Jude Hill), figured out that Rowena was poisoning Alicia and was blackmailing Rowena. When Rowena ran out of money, she became desperate, thought the blackmailer was either Dr. Ferrier or Joyce, and decided to off them both.

When Rowena and Poirot face off on the roof, Rowena falls to her death into the river (or was she pushed by the vision of Alicia that Poirot glimpses behind Rowena before she falls….????)

Poirot does not turn Leopold in, and tells him to do something good with the money. Leopold winds up in custody of Olga and her husband, and will use some of the money to send Nicholas and Desdemona Holland (Ali Khan and Emma Laird) to Missouri.

Poirot ends his friendship with Joyce.

The movie ends with Poirot coming out of retirement.