Nerdly » LFF 2025: ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Review

13th Oct2025

LFF 2025: ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Review

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church | Written and Directed by Rian Johnson

Writer/director Rian Johnson returns with Wake Up Dead Man, a third entry in the Knives Out mystery series, starring Daniel Craig as Southern-accented genius detective Benoit Blanc. This time round, the format remains the same, but the tone is markedly different, and the end result is extremely satisfying.

Wake Up Dead Man opens with narration by Reverend Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor), a former boxer who has become a priest after killing someone in the ring. He makes reference to the Good Friday Murders, before relating the story of how he was sent to a small parish in upstate New York, to assist Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). Jud quickly discovers that Wicks is a firebrand, stirring up his congregation with anger and hate, and it isn’t long before Wicks is murdered in mysterious fashion, leaving both Jud and the entire parish as suspects.

Enter Benoit Blanc (Craig), apparently drafted in by local cop Geraldine (Mila Kunis), though the circumstances of his arrival are left deliberately mysterious. Blanc instinctively believes Jud’s protestations of innocence and is immediately intrigued by what he sees as a classic Locked Room mystery – the author John Dickson Carr is pointedly name-checked, as it turns out, the suspects had all been reading Locked Room mysteries in their church book club.

Johnson’s script is alive to the pleasures of the mystery genre, taking its time with the set-up and introducing the various suspects, so that it’s a good 40 minutes or so before the murder happens and Blanc shows up. Similarly, the various twists and turns are extremely enjoyable, before the inevitable big reveal, which Blanc delivers from an amusingly appropriate location.

The previous film, Glass Onion, was a much broader comedy, but here, the tone is more serious throughout, giving it a Gothic atmosphere that befits both its setting and its themes. On that note, the script gets a lot of meaty mileage out of exploring ideas about faith and rationality, and there’s a degree of satisfying satire in there too, as Wicks can’t help but remind audiences of a certain orange-skinned President, not least in his skilled manipulation of his cult-like following.

The central performances are an absolute joy. Craig can do the part in his sleep at this point, and he’s in fine form, but the film really belongs to O’Connor, who is simply wonderful as Jud, delivering an utterly captivating performance. Moreover, the two of them spark delightful chemistry, and their every interaction is to be savoured.

Brolin and Kunis are equally good, but the rest of the admittedly excellent support cast – which includes Jeremy Renner, Cailee Spaeny, Andrew Scott, Thomas Haden Church and Kerry Washington as the various suspects – are arguably underused. The exception is Glenn Close as Wicks’ devoted book-keeper Martha Delacroix, whose introduction gives the film one of its best moments – she also proves herself to be quite the Scream Queen.

In short, Wake Up Dead Man is a joy from start to finish, a thoroughly satisfying mystery thriller that will delight armchair detectives everywhere. The good news is that Johnson and Craig have both confirmed they would be happy to do a fourth instalment, so let’s hope we don’t have to wait too long.