Early review: ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ successfully twists another ‘Knives Out’ whodunit

Everything comes in threes for the “Knives Out” films: three entries, three years between releases, three central murders to solve, and three identical births on the first Saturday of the Toronto International Film Festival at the Princess of Wales Theatre. It’s like clockwork, with writer-director Rian Johnson continually proving his dominance over a genre filled with imitators.

But Johnson doesn’t think of his work in terms of a clock.

“The film should be a roller coaster, not a crossword puzzle,” he said during the Q&A for “Wake Up Dead Man,” the announced final film in the series. It’s a strategy he has only made tougher for himself with each successive film, as audiences grow increasingly better at sniffing out each twist, striking out red herrings and picking up on the tiniest of clues. Every noun carries weight, every opinion has another side, and every innocent act hides a much darker meaning lurking beneath.

“Wake Up Dead Man” embraces the darkness, combining the trademark characteristics of Agatha Christie with the work of Edgar Allan Poe. After a COVID-19-imposed detour to a private Greek island in “Glass Onion,” the series returns to America – specifically, upstate New York.

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“Young, dumb and full of Christ,” preacher Jud Duplentis (Josh O’Connor) has been sent there to revitalize a flailing parish under the dogmatic eye of Monsignor Jefferson Micks (Josh Brolin). Years of fire-and-brimstone sermons, along with his antagonistic behavior, have transformed the ornate house of worship into a hollow Gothic tomb.

The only members left in the congregation are those ceaselessly devoted to Micks and his teachings: administrator Martha (Glenn Close), groundskeeper Samson (Thomas Haden Church), town doctor Nat (Jeremy Renner), red-pilled author Lee (Andrew Scott), sickly former cellist Simone (Cailee Spaeny), lawyer Vera (Kerry Washington) and her forcibly adopted son, Cy (Daryl McCormack).

As you assumed, one of these characters is murdered, and all fingers point to Jud – thanks to his differing views on the role of the church and his violent past, which includes killing an opponent in the boxing ring. And as you might expect, the Kentucky-fried detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) arrives to uncover the real culprit and explain the seemingly impossible mystery.

O’Connor is ostensibly the film’s lead, taking on a larger role as the audience’s guide than Ana de Armas and Janelle Monáe did in the two earlier entries. He’s sad, funny and conflicted, wanting to put down his fists and open his arms to the world.

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But the world we live in is not equipped for such compassion, trading in gossip and rumor rather than heart-to-heart conversation. This could be lightly defined as Johnson’s version of “Eddington,” taking down both sides of the aisle with groan-worthy buzzwords (MAGA, Doge, etc.) and the kind of fanaticism that breeds hatred for anything unfamiliar.

While director Ari Aster (“Hereditary,” “Midsommar”) specializes in pushing audiences closer to the ugly mirror, Johnson prefers to keep everything light and fun. The snappy editing, coupled with long zoom-ins and heightened images from regular cinematographer Steve Yedlin, keeps the intrigue chugging along on this slightly elongated 144-minute track. The surrounding forest is besieged by fog, the moon is blood red, and the eyes of the gargoyles peer down on each suspect.

Craig falls deeper into his Foghorn Leghorn routine, upping his comedic prowess as the proudly rational detective faces the realization that all the clues point to this murder being a miracle. With so much time devoted to O’Connor, the rest of the herd of cats runs loose a little more than before. I’d like to say who is better served than others, but that would edge into spoiler territory.

While Johnson would prefer audiences not think of these films as puzzles, it’s still endlessly entertaining to watch him lay out the pieces and then rearrange them. His delicate sleight of hand will have you exclaiming that you knew a certain twist was coming all along – or that you never would have guessed it in a million years. Either way, the game is afoot for (supposedly) one last time, and the board is full of saints and sinners.

“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” had its World Premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Netflix will release it in theaters on Nov. 26, followed by its streaming premiere on Dec. 12.

Eden Prairie resident Hunter Friesen is a film critic who owns and operates The Cinema Dispatch, a website where he writes reviews, essays, and more. He’s also the film critic for the Woodbury News Net. He currently serves as president of the Minnesota Film Critics Association and travels the globe covering film festivals both big and small. To view his entire body of work, you can visit his website and Instagram.