Extra Credit: Whodunit Movies to Stream After ‘Murder on the Orient Express’
In the weekly column Extra Credit, Charles Bramesco recommends supplemental viewing for moviegoers whose interests have been piqued by a given week’s big new release.
The game is afoot! This week, a remake of Agatha Christine’s seminal mystery Murder on the Orient Express (read ScreenCrush's review here) rolls into the station courtesy of director Kenneth Branagh, who also dons a robust ’stache to portray Inspector Hercule Poirot. Along with Christie‘s And Then There Were None, the original novel codified many of the elements that make the whodunit so satisfying: a crew of colorful suspects, misleading clues, plenty of twists, and a fatuous detective to sort through it all. Little wonder that the form has remained so popular — viewers get to solve the puzzle box along with the characters onscreen, racing to get to the denouement. Branagh‘s take on Christie’s novel seems a little Imagine Dragons-y for my liking, but I’m as much of a sucker for a good murder investigation as anybody, so now’s a fine time to look back on some of the subgenre’s finest examples.
Peruse the following selections (all of which are available to stream online) and keep your wits about you: