Wake Up Dead Man

A somber Knives Out trades clever twists for faith and fatigue

After creating a new charismatic detective to join the ranks of Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes with the Southern-drawling Benoit Blanc, the unlikely franchise of Knives Out has now reached its third film. After the electric first film, Knives Out (2019), the follow-up Glass Onion (2022) proved more convoluted and satirical; this is somewhat overcorrected in the latest installment, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025).

Wake Up Dead Man follows the seemingly impossible murder of priest Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), where angry parishioners blame the young newcomer priest Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor). When the police chief (Mila Kunis) of the sleepy town finds herself overwhelmed by the impossibility of the circumstantial evidence, Southern detective Blanc (Daniel Craig) is recruited. He proves sympathetic to Jud’s claims of innocence and intrigued by the heady puzzle.

Rian Johnson once again returns to write and direct this creative baby of his. The American director has truly revived the murder-mystery genre, both with his Benoit Blanc films and with his work launching Poker Face (2023–) on television. The tongue-in-cheek style has certainly helped add to the fun of viewers joining in on a macabre puzzle. This satirical approach went overboard in Glass Onion, but Johnson takes Wake Up Dead Man much more seriously, especially in his analysis of faith.

While the elements of religion and paranormal spirituality make for a spooky premise in Wake Up Dead Man, Johnson doesn’t treat them with disdain or exploitation, but rather with a tact and complexity I wasn’t expecting. Before the murder even occurs, the film introduces two warring priests debating how they should preach the word of God and Jesus to their parishioners. Wicks employs hatred and fear rooted in the Old Testament, while Jud is guided by a more forgiving and compassionate New Testament approach. It is a finely threaded argument that continues to echo as the familiar murder-mystery cogs begin to turn. Yet this exploration ultimately dominates Johnson to the point where the actual mystery begins to feel secondary.

Wake Up Dead Man is the first of the Knives Out films to show a disinterest in its lead detective. Jud emerges as the clear protagonist, discovering clues and bringing questions to the table. This fits his crisis of faith and defiant belief in absolution, but it also shatters the mold of the heroic Blanc sweeping in to stun audiences with his intellect. Blanc is largely relegated to quips and jokes until he is forced to deliver the obligatory showdown explanation with all the suspects assembled. You begin to wonder whether a film with Blanc removed altogether, and Jud positioned as the true investigator, might have been Johnson’s deeper desire. In some ways, the series is beginning to sag under its franchise obligations, and you sense Johnson wanting to break free from those constraints.

The mystery itself is passable and enjoyable, even if it doesn’t match the shattering structure and presentation of the first film, where the entire mystery is revealed halfway through. Wake Up Dead Man’s murder motivations and execution do begin to crumble the more you think about them, yet is passable to someone looking for some mystery escapism. It is neither especially memorable nor profound, and it mixes awkwardly as B-movie comedy alongside the film’s more serious explorations of faith.

Wake Up Dead Man continues the series’ tradition of high star wattage, with a cast that includes not only Brolin, O’Connor, and Craig, but also Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, and Jeremy Renner, to name a few. Yet Johnson once again shows fatigue with his formula, as some supporting characters appear to hold little interest for him. Cailee Spaeny, playing a disabled cellist, is entirely forgotten, as are Washington and a criminally brief cameo from Jeffrey Wright. This imbalance illustrates an unwanted bloat that feels obligatory—driven by audience expectations rather than narrative need—serving more to beef up the poster than to enrich the story. As such only O’Connor as the clear protagonist our director is intrigued by is given the space and material to deliver an affecting performance of a crisis of faith and a genuine perseverance in his pursuit of truth.

In the end, Wake Up Dead Man is another mixed-bag mystery for Benoit Blanc. It is more profound and engaging than the parodic Glass Onion, allowing viewers to take its story and characters more seriously as a result. The exploration of spirituality is welcome, and one I wish the film had more freedom to pursue. Yet a sense of fatigue hangs over the project, as franchise expectations begin to limit Johnson’s creative space.

6.9/10