Poirot "Hallowe'en Party" #12.2 (2010) (TV)

"Halloween is not a time for the telling of the stories macabre, but to light the candles for the dead.", 28 February 2017

During a children's Halloween party, a young girl makes the boastful claim of having seen a murder when she was much younger. No one really believes her – she has a habit of making things up. But when she turns up dead in the apple bobbing tub, it's too much of a coincidence for writer Ariadne Oliver. Before you can say "trick- or-treat", she's on the phone to old friend Hercule Poirot for help solving the mystery.

I think Hallowe'en Party might have been the first Agatha Christie book I ever read (it was either this or The ABC Murders), so it's always held a special place in my heart. I've always worried that this particular book might be difficult to film. Fortunately, Director ___ and team got most of it right. Sure, there are some interesting bits from the novel that didn't make it and some other changes to the original story, but there's enough of Christie's work here to make any fan happy. As you would expect by now with these Poirot movies, everything is just about perfect. Acting, sets, and locations are all top notch. The music and mood are appropriate. And the mystery, while involved, makes sense in the end. I had forgotten how gruesome some aspects of the story were, but I suppose that's always the case when you're talking about children being murdered.

However, there is one key aspect of Hallowe'en Party that particularly bothers me. I cannot stand the style in which much of the episode was filmed. It looks more like an episode of Law and Order with artsy camera angels, quick cuts, obtrusive lighting, and even some shaky camera than it does a period mystery/drama. What happened to just telling the story in a straight on fashion? Oh how I miss the episodes from the first half of the series. If the mystery in the second half of the movie hadn't been so interesting, I would rate this one much lower.

7/10