Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025) Dir. Rian Johnson

Benoit Blanc returns for a 3^rd murder mystery, but this time it’s an impossible crime. After Monsignor Wicks gains a cult like following in a small town, he is murdered in a sealed concrete box. He has been murdered by one of the members in the congregation, but how can he be killed if everyone is outside the box?

Rian Johnson (Director of the Knives Out Trilogy) has stated that he wants this film to go back to the roots of the Whodunnit genre, using Edgar Alan Poe’s work as a reference. Wake Up Dead Man in this regard is a very different vibe to the previous two knives out films. It places itself in the gothic genre with a darker story set mostly in a church and graveyard. It is a very nice change of pace from its predecessor Glass Onion which went for a campier, sun-drenched, Poirot vibe. It separates itself further by also being a more straight-cut murder mystery.

Knives Out, which could be accredited for revitalising the whodunnit genre, is much more of a "howcatchem", by telling the audience exactly who did the murder, and spends most of the time being a cat and mouse game. Glass Onion on the other hand also subverts the genre by killing in plain sight and playing with the chronology of the movie. Wake Up Dead Man does subvert the genre in many ways too, as you would expect from a film like this, but it’s whodunnit structure is also much simpler this time around. The murder happens, and we watch as Blanc unravels the mystery. Which does make for a nice return to form.

Would it really be a Benoit Blanc mystery if this film didn’t have an insane cast of characters? Like Ana de Armas and Janelle Monae, Josh O’Conner takes on the role of this film's emotional core. O’Conner has been on my radar since Guadagnino’s Challengers, and I am delighted to say that he is absolutely superb once again here. He plays the role of Jud with a lot of regret and guilt, as well as being so charismatic and earnest that at times he steals scenes from the energetic Benoit.

And once again Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc is amazing. He provides such an energy that you can’t help but love the character. He delivers light-hearted relief to an otherwise dark story and is exactly what you need to remind the audience that this takes place in a heightened reality.

With all that being said, this film spends a lot of time with the duo that it sacrifices some of the intimacies with the rest of the characters. In the previous films it felt like I really knew every character - with their personalities and motivations very obvious. But in this film, I feel like I don’t know the characters all that well, which does ultimately lead to the reveals feeling less impactful than they should be. The overall mystery is still good but could have been executed better.

The film's shining light however is its cinematography. It's easily the most stylish Knives Out film so far. Johnson plays with colours in such an interesting way, they really pop and make for some amazing looking shots. Furthermore, there are so many interesting angles and kinetic movements that visually this film looks uniquely different than its predecessors and is better for it.

As so often, this film may not be everyone's cup of tea, especially if you are ready for more of what you have come to expect with a Knives Out mystery. But for me, this was a real blast. Its slower pace makes for a more sombre and melancholic film, just perfect for the winter.

★★★★½

4.5 / 5

Jacob Holmes

Instagram: _jacob.holmes

Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/2vL6V