Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Review

Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, a gripping entry in the Benoit Blanc series, blends gothic mystery with emotional depth.

Where Knives Out revived the cozy mystery with tart humor and Glass Onion skewered tech moguls with flashy wit, Wake Up Dead Man tilts the franchise into darker, more contemplative territory that’s more interested in ghosts than gimmicks. Set within a cloistered religious community, the film finds young priest Rev. Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor, Challengers) arriving to assist Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin, No Country for Old Men). 

The congregation harbors secrets and sharply drawn souls: Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close, Fatal Attraction), Wicks’ loyal confidante; doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker), hollowed by regret; bitter lawyer Vera Draven (Kerry Washington, Scandal); and once-promising cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny, Priscilla). When an impossible murder shatters their fragile peace, sheriff Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis, Black Swan) works with the legendary Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig, Casino Royale) to untangle hidden truths that threaten to destroy everyone involved.

Johnson has assembled his finest ensemble to date, but this is unequivocally O’Connor’s film. His performance crackles with moral complexity, grit and faith intertwined. O’Connor makes audiences believe in his goodness while questioning whether he’s perhaps too perfect to remain innocent. His choices consistently surprise, grounding the film’s more theatrical moments with genuine humanity.

While Craig remains reliably magnetic as the finely attired sleuth, his Southern drawl now less charming than a tool of disarming insight, the supporting players bring their A-game. Close returns to the brittle, calculating characters she crafts so brilliantly, relishing her best roles in years with every barbed line. Brolin smolders as the parish’s thunderous Old Testament authority, while Kunis brings welcome dry wit as the pragmatic sheriff. Even Renner gets a long-needed chance to underplay, shedding his recent self-parody for something more human. Only Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers), as a visiting author, feels grossly underused in an ensemble otherwise firing on all cylinders.

Visually, Wake Up Dead Man marks a stark departure from Glass Onion‘s Mediterranean sheen of sun-drenched elegance. Cinematographer Steve Yedlin crafts a near-sinister atmosphere, bathing chapels and rectories in candlelight that seems ready to flicker out. Rick Heinrichs’ production design fills every frame with props that feel like possible clues; wooden pews scarred with use, reliquaries that gleam too brightly, and stained glass windows that filter light like judgment. Jenny Eagan’s costumes help distinguish allegiances without a word spoken. Nathan Johnson’s score teeters masterfully between eerie hymn and ominous dread. Together, these elements build a world where faith and rot intertwine, underlining the emotional weight of each twist.

And the twists land. Johnson’s puzzle-box storytelling remains sharp, but he’s more willing here to pause for meaning. This isn’t just about who did it, it’s about why the damage runs so deep. While Knives Out leaned on satire and Glass Onion reveled in farce, Wake Up Dead Man dares to probe questions of belief, forgiveness, and repressed trauma. Themes of absolution and legacy thread through every clue. Wake Up Dead Man doesn’t offer tidy catharsis. It lingers. It bruises. It asks whether faith can coexist with truth, and whether some confessions come too late.

Johnson isn’t afraid to let his story breathe across 149 minutes, its deliberate pace mirroring the slow unfurling of reckoning. This represents the franchise’s most emotionally resonant entry, dealing with secrets that have turned their carriers toxic. By the final act, the mystery is solved, but the residue lingers, a reminder that closure in life rarely feels neat.

The timing of this release proves crucial. This isn’t a film to half-watch on a weeknight; it demands the communal experience of a darkened theater, where collective gasps enhance Johnson’s carefully orchestrated revelations. Watch it early, before spoilers seep into the ether, this puzzle deserves to be solved with fresh eyes.

With this third outing, Johnson proves that Benoit Blanc’s adventures can evolve beyond mere puzzle-solving into genuine emotional excavation. At a time when hollow sequels saturate viewers, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery proves that reinvention doesn’t have to mean reinvention-for-profit. Sometimes it means going deeper. This isn’t just the best Benoit Blanc mystery yet; it’s a reminder that great genre filmmaking can be both wildly entertaining and surprisingly profound. Whether Benoit Blanc’s story continues or not, Johnson has made a compelling case that the whodunit isn’t just surviving; it’s evolving.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery had its World Premiere screened at TIFF on September 6, 2025 and will be screened at the BFI London Film Festival on October 8. The film will be released in select US theaters on November 26, 2025 and will be available to stream globally on Netflix from December 12.