Wake Up Dead Man

By Ian Chandler - November 27, 2025

Wake Up Dead Man is Rian Johnson's latest murder mystery in the Benoit Blanc franchise and, fortunately, the final installment produced under Netflix's oversight. Similar to Kenneth Branagh's third Poirot film, A Haunting in Venice, this third Blanc installment has a rich gothic atmosphere and religious themes. Like its predecessors, Wake Up Dead Man features an exemplary ensemble, including Josh O'Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, and several other notable actors. This picture also has, in my view, the trickiest mystery of the trilogy. Despite the marvelous cast and improved suspense, this whodunit has one grave mistake: its unremarkable, stereotypical character writing. With its combination of sharp suspense and uneven characters, Wake Up Dead Man is simultaneously the Blanc series' finest and most flawed entry.

Similar to the opening of Glass Onion, Wake Up Dead Man brims with awkwardly executed humor that leaves a weak first impression. For example, a priest admits to masturbating -- a conversation drags on long after the punchline. But once the unamusing gags are out of the way, the film begins to dig into its unusual homicide with greater focus. Once that casket is opened, it also introduces more subtle, effective humor. Blanc is not as delightfully goofy as he was in the previous two, but he still retains his charming, Southern personality. The tone is not as overbearingly quirky as Glass Onion, dialing back forced comedy in favor of a slightly darker approach.

The film's most striking feature is its meticulously crafted setting. From the intricate, medieval structures to the gravestones recurring throughout, this Blanc adventure feels the most atmospheric. Though it is by no means as dark or as suffocating as A Haunting in Venice, its grave mood helps it differ from its two older siblings. However, the vibe is slightly downgraded by the fact that it was meant to be a Netflix movie. Its aspect ratio, camerawork, and editing are characteristic of typical Netflix productions. Even so, the set design and score overpower the streamlined post-production, helping preserve the film's unique character. Gratefully, the ghastly hands of Netflix will release the series from its grasp moving forward. With that, perhaps we will get the extra cinematic flourish that Knives Out enjoyed.

The mystery, while still not as brilliant as some of Agatha Christie's best, is notably sharper than Glass Onion's -- and arguably even Knives Out. It is more complicated, sinister, and frankly, weird. The case also benefits from a much-improved pace, gradually uncovering twists and clues instead of the abrupt nature some whodunits fall for. I failed to guess the guilty party, something I cannot say about the first two Blanc mysteries. Without spoiling anything, it is enough to say that the mystery's structure has never been this sharp and biting.

Wake Up Dead Man, though its mystery is alive and well, wears out on the character department. At least four of them barely utter ten lines throughout the entire film. A lot of them have limited personality, thanks to the film's embrace of unimaginative stereotypes. Catholicism is bizarre, cult-like, and flawed -- a great opportunity to create memorable suspects. But instead of properly exploring the characters' beliefs and perhaps uncovering more of the denomination's nature, the film delivers the same, shallow behavior and jokes you see across decades of filmmaking. While Blanc and a few other characters have enough substance to chew on, the rest are practically Post-it notes.

Moreover, Wake Up Dead Man fails to explore thought-provoking themes of spirituality. Given the stark contrasts between Blanc's atheism and the suspects' Christianity, there was plenty of potential to provide great arguments. Well implemented commentary could have served as sprinkles on top of the movie's mysterious platter. What we get instead is a tired retread of the most amateur arguments from both sides. It goes overboard by simplifying atheism and Christianity, rendering both stances far frailer than they actually are. I do not recall any film in recent memory that handled these opposing beliefs so poorly.

Where I would rank Johnson's newest movie is an enigma. It resolves a lot of issues I had with the otherwise solid Glass Onion, but it introduces new flaws that were not as apparent in the other Benoit Blanc cases. Its creepy environment adds a much-needed extra layer of flavor to the franchise. However, half of the characters are frankly nonexistent, and the others are stuck in outdated stereotypes. So, Wake Up Dead Man wastes its shot at being among the best whodunit pictures. The feature is simply a complicated, thoroughly written whodunit held under the clutches of lazy commentary on arguably the longest debate in human history.

Score: 74/100

Summary (for quick reference): Sharp, sinister, and weird, Wake Up Dead Man moves the whodunit forward -- but some characters are afterthoughts and its religious themes go numb.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is a fine third iteration of the classic whodunnit mystery within the Knives Out franchise.

To review this film, you have to either write a lengthy passage reflecting on all the themes the film shines light on, or make it short and simple. I'll go simple on this one.

The script is just an imprint of Rian Johnson's thoughts and style. And since supposedly nobody was keeping Rian at bay, the first probably 30 minutes of the film felt unhinged when it comes to humor and satire. The film almost turned into a meta-comedy in the second act, but still managed to get back to the mystery it was intended to untangle.

The story was a classic Rian Johnson's one with excessive childish humor, lots of callbacks and nods to other franchises, constant attempt at subverting the viewer's expectations.

At the same time, it had lots of interesting political, personal and religious themes discussed, like (obviously) faith, religion, moral values and personal choices, greed, manipulation, power and politics, media and social interactions. While Rian surely wanted to have fresh characters and not basic stereotypes, some of them were still loosely connected to the story if at all, and felt more like tokens with traits attached rather than characters. The plot was well-constructed, but few scenes still felt like the plot was giving itself a push forward after stumbling and loosing it's focus.

Some might say that the film bashes on religion (especially in the first 30 minutes), but didn't find the film offensive in this way. The ending perfectly shows the respect given to genuine faith and canonical moral values.

The cast managed to deliver great performances with no exceptions, probably due to good direction, although in my opinion Andrew Scott was just underused, really needed more of him in this film.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is a prefect blend of political, religious and other personal themes, wrapped into classic Johnson's excessive whodunnit buffoonery. A solid 8/10, thank you, Rian Johnson.

Before diving into the murder mystery aspect, I want to take a moment and acknowledge the commentary done on faith here.

A double-edged sword; on one side, it can uplift those in need and pain, guiding them toward better decisions and encouraging repentance. However, it can also be twisted and misused for selfish gains, leading some to become radicalised, blinded by anger and driven by greed and hate.

Now, turning back to the main story, while it certainly captivates and offers suspense in certain moments, the final twist doesn't deliver the punch that a good "whodunnit" should.

And I feel the primary issue lies in the lack of a compelling ensemble who would fit according to the situation being dealt with.

In narratives like this, it's essential for each character to have a strong, distinct identity, allowing the audience to continuously speculate and second-guess who the real culprit might be. When the cast fails to spark curiosity or engage the viewers, the whole experience feels diminished, ultimately undermining the story's intent.

With the exceptions of Blanc, Martha and Jud, the rest failed to make their cases heard, utterly forgettable on every front.

Wake Up Dead Man really surprised me. I will admit I was not a huge fan of the first two films, but this new Knives Out installment is a much different beast. It still has plenty of laugh out loud moments, but the tone tends to take a more serious approach than the other two films.

It may not be the best film of the year, but I still really enjoyed this film and about 90% of that is due to Josh O'connor. He gives a fantastic performance here and unlike the first two Knives Out, Daniel Craig takes somewhat of a backseat here.

The runtime of the film is a bit longer than it needs to be but overall it does everything right from the cinematography to the score and witty script. If you love murder mysteries like me, Wake Up Dead Man is an absolute must watch even though its definitely not a film that must be seen on the big screen.

This is the third Knives Out film and whilst perhaps it doesn't hit the mad heights of ingenuity of Glass Onion, it's still highly watchable and way better than the recent Hercule Poirot films of Kenneth Branagh. Josh O'Connor is surprisingly good as the troubled young priest who becomes deeply disturbed at what he sees in the parish he is sequestered to after hitting another priest. He finds himself charged with murder and only Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) believes he is innocent. In true Knives Out fashion, everyone is a suspect and Blanc has to unravel the truth in his own inimitable way.

A great cast has fun playing some truly disturbing characters, especially Glenn Close as the borderline unhinged Martha. Blanc arrives about a third of the way into the story leaving Josh O'Connor plenty of room to shine as the naive but not stupid Father Jud. He finds the idyllic parish he is sent to to be anything but, full of strange eccentrics who don't trust him. Of course once Blanc arrives to try and piece together a story that at one point even he admits he doesn't understand then things get even more interesting.

What I like about this film, and the two Benoit Blanc films that came before, is that it is almost like a 21st century Colombo episode (except without telling you who teh guilty culprit is at the beginning). Craig's eccentric performance as Blanc might be irritating in the hands of a lesser actor and its a role he has grown into. Surrounding him with well known actors playing against type is a masterstroke and helps sell it even more.

Wake Up Dead Man is the third in the series so far and the second of a two picture deal director Rian Johnson agreed with Netflix. I really hope we get more Benoit Blanc films, preferably with another distributor as these films deserve a proper theatrical release rather than the limited one Netflix (very reluctantly) agreed to. You don't need to be a genius to realize that they are relatively inexpensive (by movie standards) to make, have a loyal (if older) audience who appreciate originality over bloated visual excess (such as the first two Branagh Poirot films) and love the dark humour these films serve. Actors want to be in them, Johnson and Craig want to do more of them and the public want to watch them. It's not rocket science!