Knives Out – Wake Up Dead Man/Netflix
3 stars (out of 4)
Director: Rian Johnson
Starring: Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church
Language: English
Running time: 2hours, 24 minutes
Available: In theaters, November 26, 2025 (limited release); streaming on Netflix, December 12, 2025
Benoit Blanc, “the world’s greatest detective,” returns with beaucoup charm and Cajun curiosity in the third Knives Out whodunnit: Wake Up Dead Man. Like its predecessors, Dead Man is a delightful ensemble cast of familiar faces who seem to be having so much fun romping through the atmospheric sets that we can’t help but smile from opening shot to closing credits.
Call it a cozy mystery, an Agatha Christie ripoff, or what you will. It’s not unlike Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Murder by Death (1976), and Clue (1985).
What sets the Knives Out series apart is the character of Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), a Southern private detective with a love of musical theater, a penchant for natty three-piece suits, and an accent you could cut with a tobacco ax. This time around, Blanc has grown his hair past his collar to resemble a Byronic hero with a spiky stubble of gray whiskers. But he’s still the same determined (if at times self-doubting) detective you’d want on your team.
Director Rian Johnson, who directed and wrote the first two installments as well as Star Wars: The Last Jedi, keeps Blanc in the wings for the film’s first 40 minutes as the plot begins to thicken.
Boxer-priest Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) has been shunted off to remote Chimney Rock in upstate New York after clocking an obnoxious fellow priest at the Albany Diocese Pastoral Center. The young cleric’s mission/penance is to inject some much-needed energy into the dwindling congregation of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, whose low-lit Gothic stone walls and churchyard filled with ancient tombstones are the perfect location for intrigue.
The parish is controlled with an iron chalice by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, played with frightening intensity by Josh Brolin. His secretary-accountant-organist and devoted acolyte is the holier-than-thou Martha Delacroix. Glenn Close, as Martha, chews enough scenery to feed a small African village, and she’s a thrill to watch. Over-the-top, for sure. But is there anything in the Knives Out films that isn’t? You buy into that—or not—from the beginning.
Murder in the cathedral (well, parish church) brings out Police Chief Geraldine Scott, a deglamorized Mila Kunis, who is less than credible as the head cop. Realizing she’s in over her head, the chief quickly calls in Benoit Blanc. And the fun kicks into high gear.
Blanc accepts the assignment to investigate the mystery, even though long ago he shed his religious beliefs and became an atheist. “I kneel at the altar of the rational,” he explains at one point.
The killing, a seemingly impossible crime, is what Agatha Christie fans call a locked-door mystery. But Blanc is unfazed: “It’s just a murder,” he says. “And I solve murders.”
Despite his self-assurance, Blanc begins to have doubts that he can clear up this particular homicide. Daniel Craig plays that self-doubt low-key enough to be believable. Blanc is a capable detective, but not infallible.
Many fine actors fill secondary roles, and are more than equal to the task: Jeremy Renner as the town’s alcoholic doctor; Andrew Scott as a writer looking for the closing chapter of his next big (782,000 words!) book; Kerry Washington as an aggrieved lawyer; and an always capable Thomas Haden Church as the church’s groundskeeper and an observer who notices everything that goes on in the small community.
Much has been made in the movie’s publicity about the actors being hired for their roles mere weeks before principal photography began. Hype? Who knows? The idea being that the players wouldn’t over-rehearse, fret too much about their characters’ motivation, or get called away to a more prestigious film with a conflicting schedule.
Whatever the truth is behind that scenario, it worked. The cast plays it loose and easy, staying on script without fear of their character seeming clueless, ugly, or simply silly. And there is plenty of cluelessness, ugliness, and silliness to go around.
One has the sense that writer-director Rian Johnson spent most of his time behind the camera saying something along the lines of, “Let’s do it again, but this time give us even more of everything!”
Wake Up Dead Man is a comedy, no doubt, but it comes with a handful of frightening moments, a bit of blood here and there, spooky settings, harlot-whores, out-of-wedlock children, drinking problems—all the ingredients of a lighthearted laugh-fest. But make no mistake: An enormous amount of seasoned acting skill fills the screen, despite the chuckle-filled script.
An intriguing point about the plot: Benoit Blanc seems much more concerned about the why of the murder than the who. His intellectual curiosity bends that way—relationships, feuds, motivation. If you gave Blanc a set of the killer’s fingerprints, he’d discreetly toss it into the fireplace. Where’s the fun in forensics? No, Blanc wants drama, revelation, and confession.
Of the three films, Dead Man is second-best, after the original. But that’s no slam, considering that the initial outing was superb, in its script, cast, and direction. If Rian Johnson’s goal is to create a sequel to surpass the original Knives Out, I will be first in line at the theater box office for the next one.
Author Bio:
Mark Orwoll writes about film and travel for Highbrow Magazine.
For Highbrow Magazine