Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025) Review!!

Synopsis – Benoit Blanc returns for his most dangerous case yet.

My Take – When it arrived back in 2019, nobody expected ‘Knives Out‘ to be such a success story, let alone earn $312.9 million on its $40 million budget. But writer-director Rian Johnson’s whodunit brought back memories of the starry, slippery fun of the 70s and 80s, when films like this would be a dime a dozen, and add to that the sharp writing and excellent performances, the critics (and the audience) simply just lapped up as private investigator Benoit Blanc (played by Daniel Craig) unspooled the mystery in front of him.

And while Glass Onion (2022) managed to be delightfully amusing in its own way, it wasn’t quite the deserving follow-up that many of us had hoped it would be. And now filmmaker Johnson is back with a third installment, the second as part of his Netflix deal (one that cost an estimated $450m), that too at time when the whodunit genre has found itself, once again, close to oversaturation on both the big and the small screen.

But thankfully, the new film not just returns from the exhausting Greek Island excesses of its predecessor to the more compact pleasures of the first film, swapping the country house for a small Catholic church and rectory in upstate New York, it also marks a smashing return to form that puts the series to be confidently back on track with yet another murder mystery with even more delicious twists and turns than the previous two installments.

If the first film was a polished but playful modern mystery and the second a glittering satire, this third one takes a slightly more serious tone by tacking themes like faith and forgiveness, making it the acclaimed filmmaker’s darkest and most playful work yet.

Sure, it has flaws, like how it threatens to overstay its welcome with a run time of 144 minutes, and with a cast this large, it is impossible to give everyone a role of substance, yet it is confidently executed. From its exceptional score to its slick, masterful screenplay, winning performances, and brilliant vision, the film keeps us glued to its sleuthing fun.

The story once again follows Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), a private detective, who begins reading a handwritten story from Rev. Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor), a one-time boxer turned relatively young Catholic priest with his own troubled past, who narrates how he found himself reassigned by Bishop Langstrom (Jeffrey Wright), after punching a fellow priest, and wound up under the direction of the charismatic but hateful Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) of the Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude parish.

A priest who has been driving longtime and new parishioners away by his increasingly combative sermons. And yet there are several churchgoers whose fierce loyalty to Wicks seems suspicious.

Beginning with Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), a devout believer who does everything from keeping the books and filing away documents to playing the organ at Mass and laundering the Monsignor’s vestments. While the church’s flock includes depressed town doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner); successful attorney Vera Draven (Kerry Washington); Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), a bestselling author whose stock has plummeted; accomplished cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny), whose career ended when a chronic nerve condition put her in a wheelchair; Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), Vera’s adoptive son and failed politician, always armed with a small camera and mic to capture YouTube content; and longtime groundskeeper Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church), who has something going on with Martha.

So when Wicks is killed in a baffling manner, Jud becomes the main suspect, forcing him to work with Benoit, with the support of local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis), and find out the truth behind a murder that seems unsolvable.

From there on the murder and the surrounding investigation are rather meticulously laid out, with enough clues sprinkled throughout to keep audiences from falling too far behind the on-screen characters. But even when one does get a piece of the puzzle correct, there’s almost always another piece waiting to be discovered that you didn’t even realize was missing.

Part of the fun of these films has become seeing the prim and proper Blanc sharing space and ideas with groups of characters he’d likely never mix it up with just for pleasure, and the same holds true with this one, even if he most closely works with Jud and the local authorities. Hence, similar to the roles played by Ana de Armas and Janelle Monae in the first two chapters, O’Connor and Craig drive the narrative as a two-hander. In fact, with Blanc truly not arriving on the scene until over 40 minutes in.

While the first two Knives Out films took digs at wealth inequality and class warfare, their commentary on political hypocrisy was more subtle. Here, director Johnson takes aim directly at strongmen leaders who co-opt religion as a means for spreading hate and consolidating power. Hence, the primary focus lies in the clash of ideologies between Blanc and Duplenticy. With the preacher’s passionate religious beliefs anchoring him to the mystery, he finds his faith tested by Blanc’s atheist outlook, and the exchanges between them alone are worth the price of admission.

Yes, the core concepts and themes of hellfire, damnation, judgment, shame, regret and analogous topics make it less of a joyride than Blanc’s earlier cases, but the standalone nature of this franchise doesn’t necessitate tonal similarities or a comedic balance at all. There’s a constant tug between sin and salvation, between the holy and the ridiculous.

The choice to embed a murder mystery in a world of confession and penance was an inspired one; everyone here has something to hide, and no one’s soul is spotless. And as always, he delivers a great-looking film, with sharp work from cinematographer Steve Yedlin, richly detailed production design by Rick Heinrichs and character-enhancing costumes by Jenny Eagan.

Performance wise, Daniel Craig is as dapper and charming as ever with his suave Southern gent with the stylish suits and exaggerated drawl. Josh O’Connor, once again proves he is one of our most versatile and reliably excellent actors working today and gets to demonstrate genuine comedic chops. Josh Brolin do their jobs admirably and feels at home in this genre, oozing energy throughout. Glenn Close delivering yet another powerhouse turn and truly elevates her character.

Kerry Washington is also fantastic, demonstrating a dark internal fury, while Daryl McCormack plays the entitled political social media influencer effectively. Jeremy Renner, in one of his quietest roles ever, is believable in his pathetic demeanor. But while Mila Kunis, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny and Thomas Haden Church are particularly shortchanged, they makes the most of it when they can. On the whole, ‘Wake Up Dead Man‘ is a hauntingly funny modern whodunit that works excellently as a devilishly clever and unexpectedly heartfelt addition to the franchise.