From The Nun II to A Haunting In Venice, Should You Add These To Your Watchlist?
Hauntings in Venice, France, and… a publishing company? Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado shares if these new projects will really give you thrills and chills.
A Haunting In Venice
Director and star Kenneth Branagh returns with a new Hercule Poirot whodunnit in A Haunting In Venice, but is it worth the watch?
While attending a Halloween seance at a haunted palazzo in Italy, Poirot investigates a murder that may just be a haunting. Venice is an absolutely stunning location for this film. The colors, visuals, camera work, and production design are top tier. It was also fun to dive into that balance of logic versus the supernatural.
While Michelle Yeoh was an absolute stand out, Tina Fey took me out of the film, giving off a parody vibe. The humor didn’t work and I found the end to be a big exposition dump instead of walking you through all the clues we’ve seen and piecing that together to give you your answer. If you’re already a fan of these Agatha Christie adaptations, you may enjoy this one, but, if you haven’t been, it doesn’t do anything special with the story.
A Haunting In Venice hits theaters on September 15.
The Nun II
Taissa Farmiga returns as Sister Irene in The Nun II to face off against the demonic force. Set in 1956 France nearly four years after the first movie, a priest is murdered and it seems an evil is spreading.
While The Nun II had some fun moments that will make you jump, it’s weighed down by a weak story with no real stakes. It holds tight to cliched and sometimes cheesy horror tricks that you will be able to spot a mile away. They completely waste Storm Reid who feels out of time in her role as novitiate Sister Debra, although Jonas Bloquet remains a fan favorite character as Maurice.
The Nun II debuts in theaters on September 8.
The Other Black Girl
Nella Rogers (Sinclair Daniel) is an editorial assistant at Wagner Books and the only Black woman working at the company until the hiring of Hazel-May McCall (Ashleigh Murray). The two begin to grow close, but strange occurrences after her hiring lead to Nella discovering the truth about Wagner's disturbing history. The series is based on the book by Zakiya Dalila Harris and inspired by her own personal experiences.
Equal parts Single White Female and The Stepford Wives, Daniel and Murray deliver compelling performances in this 10 episode horror-comedy series. While it falls a little short on the big reveal, it is a solid mystery centered around Black women in white spaces and what it really means to get a seat at the proverbial table.
The Other Black Girl premieres on Hulu on September 13.
