Having failed to astonish us with their adaptations of the two best known Agatha Christie books, Murder On The Orient Express and Death On The Nile, director-star Kenneth Branagh and screenwriter Michael Green shake things up by reworking a lesser-known Christie chiller, Hallowe’en Party. The resulting, supernaturally themed story shares little with the novel in question, so even those familiar with the plot have the potential to be surprised.

Branagh is back in the ‘tache as supersleuth Hercule Poirot, who is living in Venice having stepped back from detective work. Enter mystery writer and Poirot’s old mucker, Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), who challenges him to expose the trickery of psychic Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh). Joyce has been called upon to contact the deceased daughter of Kelly Reilly’s Rowena Drake during a séance at a spooky mansion. The evening ends with another death, an attempt on Poirot’s life, and the suspects confined to the building.

Dark and brooding with silky cinematography, A Haunting In Venice begins with something resembling restraint, before launching into some wild plot contortions. Throwing in jump scares spices things up a bit and there’s bags of atmosphere as storm waves batter the crumbling canal-side palazzo, typewriter keys thud, a pet cockatoo shrieks, unseen children sing and scuttle, and a dead phone rings right on cue.

If Branagh still seems an odd fit for the role, it’s one we’ve grown accustomed to seeing him in and a classy cast have his back. Fey makes for a sassy sidekick, while Belfast’s Jamie Dornan and Jude Hill reunite as a troubled doctor and his ‘I see dead people’ son. A Haunting In Venice is the best of the series so far, with its infusions of horror adding some much-needed edge.

A Haunting In Venice is in cinemas from Friday 15 September.