It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Airing now on BBC1/BBCiplayer
Edited: I enjoyed that, admittedly I have only seen the Bill Bixby version and not read the book. I forgot who the killer was, I will rewatch this to see what I missed.
I don't think either Poirot or Marple (especially the latter) are remotely believable, but neither are Indiana Jones and Lara Croft. Part of the appeal of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple is that they solve violent murder through entirely nonviolent means. It's the victory of the kind hearted thinkers over the bullies.
I'm surprised it says Hallowe'en Party is so poorly reviewed, even by fans. It might be poor whodunit, but I loved it, because of its atmosphere and darkness.
Oh and if someone can make sense of Postern of Fate, please explains it to me.
I had heard they were going to adapt Death Comes as the End a few years ago. Sad to hear that the project now appears to be dead in the water. I believe that Christie's later novels were affected by her cognitive decline as they now think that she had Alzheimer's Disease in her last years.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/03/agatha-christie-alzheimers-research
Yes that's why the plot is so confused, borderline absurd at times, and there's so many lose ends and plot holes.
I've read that Christie's vocabulary was much smaller and she reused familiar words and phrases throughout the last novels. Elephants Never Forget is also cited as one of her worst novels. Sadly it couldn't have been helped. At least she tried to keep going and didn't give in. Alzheimer's and dementia are very cruel diseases. Poor lady. She has my sympathy.
Yes, it's a horrible way to live one's last few years. Her late novels suffer from it. But for all its flaws, I think Postern of Fate makes for great material for an adaptation: it has lots of atmosphere, the idea of old evils casting long shadows is a potent one and it has heroes made vulnerable with age.
Boy that one was painful.
It's more of a spy thriller I believe as opposed to a detective story?
With weird elements of science fiction dropped in it, as well as politic fiction. And dubious moral implications.
I see. It all sounds very involved!
But I'll always say Hallowe'en Party is underrated. Flawed, yes, but with lots of good stuff in it.
Sounds like a badly edited novel too. Her editors probably did her no favours either and pretty much just went, "Publish!".
Too obvious to find the murderer, not enough suspects, too much of an author's tract at times, etc.
And all of this might be true. But I find the villain really chilling, as well as its dark, proto Twin Peaks atmosphere. At times, it almost feels supernatural. Yes, the murderer has very clear, rational motives. But there's something mad, megalomaniac about the character. Like an extra layer of sheer madness beneath the rationality, itself beneath the respectable facade. And on top of the resolved murders, there's a number of suspicious deaths that could be linked to the main plot. As a whodunit, it might be too obvious. But as a portrait of evil, it's brilliant. The best Agatha Christie novels generally work better if read as something else than a whodunit. ATTWN as a quasi slasher for instance.