11 Recent Movie Plot Twists You Never Saw Coming

10. A Haunting In Venice - Rowena Did It

Malignant Annabelle
20th Century Studios

The fact that A Haunting in Venice didn't use the ending from the Agatha Christie book it was adapting is a twist in itself, for most Christie films do follow her plots pretty closely, and why wouldn't they? No-one could write a clever Whodunnit like she did. 

2017's Murder on the Orient Express was a faithful - perhaps overly so - adaptation of the novel, while 2022's Death on the Nile, though reasonably faithful, made the wise choice to deviate from the source material and take the story in some dark new directions. 

A Haunting in Venice takes this to the next level by being the loosest possible adaptation of Halloween Party, a late Hercule Poirot book, that relocates the story from rural England to Venice and bases the murders around a seance instead of a Halloween party. 

The film also changes the final reveal, as in the book there are more killings, and Rowena (Kelly Reilly) is working with a character who wasn't even included in the movie. By contrast, the film has Rowena acting alone and also includes a plot line about her unintentionally killing her own child in a chilling example of manchusen syndrome. 

Better still, the final reveal in the movie is seriously clever, and sees screenwriter Michael Green delivering a final rug pull that would make Dame Agatha Christie herself proud. 

 
First Posted On: 
Contributor

Film Studies graduate, aspiring screenwriter and all-around nerd who, despite being a pretentious cinephile who loves art-house movies, also loves modern blockbusters and would rather watch superhero movies than classic Hollywood films. Once met Tommy Wiseau.