A Haunting in Venice | 2023 | PG-13 | – 1.5.3

Why is “A Haunting in Venice” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “some strong violence, disturbing images and thematic elements.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of kissing scenes and discussions of love, deaths by being impaled, being stabbed and being poisoned without evident blood or gore, several scary sequences with discussions of ghosts, a few stories of children dying and a house being haunted by their ghosts, several arguments and some moderate language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Set in Venice in 1947, the famous detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) has retired and is living a quiet life, until he is convinced to join an acquaintance and mystery writer (Tina Fey) at a party where they expect to debunk a spiritualist (Michelle Yeoh) as a fraud. Death follows. Also with Jamie Dornan, Dylan Corbett-Bader, Amir El-Masry, Riccardo Scamarcio, Fernando Piloni, Lorenzo Acquaviva, David Menkin, Camille Cottin and Kelly Reilly. Directed by Branagh. [Running Time: 1:43]

A Haunting in Venice SEX/NUDITY 1

 – A young man and a young woman dance and kiss tenderly. Two teenagers kiss on a bench and a woman warns them when a nun is coming; they walk away.
► People remark about a man being in love with a woman. People talk about a young man and a young woman becoming engaged and later that they broke up and it broke the young woman’s heart. A young man talks about ending a relationship with a young woman and that he was heartbroken.
► A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage in a few scenes. Several male statues are shown a couple of times and we see bare shoulders, abdomens and backs. A cuckoo clock has the characters of Adam and Eve on it and they move through a garden when the clock chimes and a snake hisses (we see a nude man and woman with their genitals covered).

A Haunting in Venice VIOLENCE/GORE 5

 – A woman is impaled by a statue and we see the stone hand sticking through her back and out her chest a couple of times without blood evident; we see this in silhouette again later. A man puts his head in a basin filled with water and apples trying to get an apple in his mouth; he is held under the water by someone else and he thrashes and then is still until a man pulls him out of the water (he gasps and spits water out). A man is shown lying on the floor motionless and we later see him stabbing himself in the back with a sword (we hear a crunch).
► A body is shown lying motionless in a bed. A woman stands on the roof of a house and falls into the water below; we see her sink underwater. We hear about a young woman dying by falling from a balcony into water below and drowning; we see a young woman fall and we see her sinking underwater motionless a few times. A body is pulled out of water by a rope and we see several cuts on her back. A man has a bloody wound on his head after hitting his head and a spot of blood is shown on a cloth. Three bodies are wrapped with sheets and tied onto the bow of a police boat.
► Two men fight in a hallway and they slam each other against the walls and punch each other several times; one man slams the other man into a window and holds him over a shard of the pointed glass until he lets him go. A gardening claw is used to cut a person on the back and we see bloody slash marks. A young woman runs out of a room after punching a man in the face; she is tripped in a hallway and taken back to the room where she and a young man are tied to a chair and questioned. A young woman slaps a man in the face. Several people chase a man on a sidewalk trying to get his attention; another man prevents them from getting close by hitting one person and knocking another off a bridge into a canal. A fragile chandelier sparks and falls from the ceiling shattering on the floor where children are gathered and they scream. People follow a man down a flight of stairs and into a passage below a house where we see cages and piles of stuffed animals with rats skittering across them. Something slams through the wall of a house from a canal, it crashes into a skeleton that breaks open and bees come out of its mouth. A man sees the reflection of a young woman in a mirror standing behind him.
► A man becomes upset during a séance and reaches into a fireplace chimney pulling a young man out and accusing him of helping a woman fake talking to the dead. A young woman is shown to be upset and frightened and she thrashes in a bed. A woman seated in a room spins around in a chair, roaring and yelling and contorting her face; she speaks in a child’s voice and talks to another woman as if she is the woman’s dead daughter saying, “I don’t want to die,” and, “You killed me.” A man seems to be hearing and seeing things that no one else can see or hear (a child’s voice, a small child, water dripping down a wall to form the shape of a letter, etc.). A woman says that she bullied her way into a meeting.
► A young man talks about ending a relationship with a young woman and that the next time he saw her she was in a coffin. A man and a woman argue and he threatens another man. People talk about a house holding many voices and that the ghosts of children are there and they hold a vendetta against people practicing medicine. A man relates a story about when he was treating very sick people during a war and that he shot himself in the chest after a horrible event where many people died and there was nothing he could do to help them. A man relates a story reenacted by shadow puppets to a room filled with children about a plague that caused great fear and that adults locked them in a building in cages leaving them to starve to death. A man wakes up with a start after seeing a large bird attack a smaller bird and it screeches loudly. A woman says, “I can talk to the dead.” A man says that the people of Venice think they are cursed. A person says that every house is haunted or cursed. We hear about a place being an orphan’s home. People talk about a young woman’s death being suicide. A woman says, “This one will be said, and that she senses “Horrible memories.” A man cuts his finger while peeling an apple (we do not see blood).
► A man sits in a chair and leans against a wall in several scenes trembling and having what seem to be panic attacks. People wear ghoul’s masks at a Halloween party. A man wears a skeleton costume with a skull face covering. A woman wears a mask that has a large tear painted on one cheek. A parrot screeches in a few scenes and we are told that it used to talk. A body covered with a sheet is shown on a table and there is a large spot of blood on it. A teacup and saucer are tipped off a table and they shatter.

A Haunting in Venice LANGUAGE 3

 – 1 scatological term, 4 mild obscenities, name-calling (unholy, flimflam, fake, broken, frivolous, diva, old crone, opportunist, Satanic, sick, bastards, pompous, idiot, the help, fool, guard dog, mentally ill, creepy, stupid, silly, jumpy, looney, superstitious, savage), exclamations (lighten up, oh no), 10 religious exclamations (e.g. Christ, good God, if there is a God, for Christ’s sake, unholy, only God can forgive, God, God help me, oh God, a woman genuflects in a few scenes). | profanity glossary |

A Haunting in Venice SUBSTANCE USE

 – A young boy gives his father medication when he seems to have panic attacks in a few scenes, and a remark is made about someone being doped up.

A Haunting in Venice DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Happiness vs. satisfaction, mysteries, murder, blackmail, Halloween, psychics, truth, regret, sin, ghosts, battle fatigue, witchcraft, tricks, tragedy, death of a child, vendettas, suicide, séances, poison, superstitions, hope, World War II, Typhoid Fever.

A Haunting in Venice MESSAGE

 – Heartbreak can lead to desperation.