In 2019, Oscar-nominated writer-director Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig revitalized the British drawing room murder mystery with the gleeful, ensemble-cast Knives Out, creating their own version of Agatha Christie’s unflappable detective Hercule Poirot with Craig’s brilliant Southerner, Benoit Blanc. After the vacation murder mystery vibes in Glass Onion, Netflix’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, set a different tone again—revolving around battles between logic and faith.
Johnson noted how he riffed off of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue—a seemingly impossible locked-room scenario involving a corpse—while maintaining the Knives Out DNA. Set in a small town and focusing on its local church, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is packed with stars, including Josh O’Connor as a the younger cleric to Josh Brolin’s autocratic, abrasive priest, Glenn Close as his right-hand person. They were joined by the townspeople played by Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Jeremy Renner, and Mila Kunis as a local cop who is as determined as Blanc to solve this seemingly insoluble case. And there is a murder that presents itself as an impossible crime.
In our current times, Kenneth Branagh’s Christie film adaptations have been directly competing with Johnson’s Knives Out world. Without beating around the bush, A Haunting In Venice was a better third installment between the two franchises. However, I would say Poirot’s third go-around only edges by as a more entertaining watch.
Still, Craig brought out his classic Benoit in this sequel film. With his Southern accent still holding strong during his long spews of dialogue, it was actually his physical comedy that shone in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Craig brings funny faces and fun antics to Benoit in this one, playing well against the straight-laced characters like Close’s Martha and Kunis’ Geraldine.
Coming off his strong performances in The Crown and Challengers, O’Connor brought a lot of charisma to his character, Reverend Jud Duplenticy. Jud’s backstory is wild for a priest, and it is nonstop hilarity when we see religious people talk bluntly—like when Jud talks with the Cardinal (Jeffrey Wright) or Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). Something about O’Connor’s stature and acting style makes him always seem scrawny and innocent, even in this role—making his performance even more effective in this movie.
The rest of the male actors did a perfect job playing characters I knew they would nail, but Close and Washington brought a different level of acting to Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Was it a little out of place? Slightly, but elevated the film quality and added another layer to this heavy-layered murder mystery. Close played the scary lady who appeared out of nowhere, and knew all the urban legend stories of the church.
“Compared to Johnson’s other Knives Out films, I thought this felt the most textbook murder mystery—but lacked the pizzaz to keep me enthralled the whole way through.”
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’s weakest part was its pacing. For a story that was supposed to pay homage to Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, the middle portion of this movie lost traction. The darker themes died out in the middle meat of this movie. And yet, somehow it landed super strong in its final few scenes. By the third act, the general vibe was Poe with a killer’s hangout looking like something Dupin would have seen in The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
Compared to Johnson’s other Knives Out films, I thought this felt the most textbook murder mystery—but lacked the pizzaz to keep me enthralled the whole way through. Glass Onion almost had the opposite problem of there being a bit less methodical detective moments, as it was a story told out of sequence. Despite being the weakest mystery of the three films, I kept watching because of all the enticing smoke and mirrors.
The problem with Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery was that there were no smoke and mirrors, just an impossible-looking case. I felt like Johnson and his team pushed the themes around a walking dead man and religion a step too far story-wise, but the final execution did not go far enough. There needed to be a bigger aha-moment, similar to when Benoit figures out Ransom’s (Chris Evans) plan in Knives Out. In this movie, it was funny and subtle but felt restrained.
“The overall set decoration, location, and score felt more steeped in the mystery genre in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, against the last movie’s extravagant location.”
Johnson continued to create characters to represent people from all walks of life in the U.S. Conceptually, one of the funniest characters in this film was Daryl McCormack’s (Twisters) Cy Draven because he was like every Gen-Z or Gen-Alpha person who is an influencer in modern times—recording everything for content. Unfortunately, something about this batch of townspeople suspects felt the most disjointed of the three films. Spaeny’s Simone Vivane barely had any screentime to allow her to have a standout character moment, except for one moment where she got to do a short monologue while lighting up a cigarette. At least Dave Bautista in Glass Onion had early memorable moments before dying early on.
The overall set decoration, location, and score felt more steeped in the mystery genre in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, against the last movie’s extravagant location. Knives Out started off strong with having distinct mystery instrumentals, but was weaker in Glass Onion. The neo-gothic church, the Wicks tomb, and New York style forest area made me believe this was somewhere in the UK countryside. The main church areas shown in the film highlighted the church’s architectural prowess and allure, fitting for a mystery to be solved.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is worth watching for fans, with a mystery that has a better story and solvability than Glass Onion. The antics in the second movie overshadowed the crime and sleuthing found in mystery/crime films. By the time the credits rolled, my mystery palette was satiated and I cannot wait for others to watch this higher thinking style murder case. Be prepared to put on your thinking caps to solve the unsolvable case at its highest level thinking so far!
