Rian Johnson’s ‘Wake Up Dead Man‘, which is the third chapter in his ‘Knives Out’ saga, has just bowed at TIFF as it is sparking a wave of glowing first reactions. If Knives Out was a sharp revival of the classic Agatha Christie whodunit and ‘Glass Onion‘ was its sunnier, satirical cousin, this new chapter takes audiences into murkier and straight into gothic waters. Johnson himself described it as his Edgar Allan Poe moment because that spirit lingers over every frame of the new movie.
Rather than bright colourful estates of America, the story setting here is one of crypts and cloisters at a corner of upstate New York City, where the lines between faith, authority, and secrecy blur. At its center is Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), a fire-and-brimstone preacher whose spell over his parishioners makes him as much a cult leader as a man of God. But when Wicks meets a grisly and seemingly impossible end during a Good Friday sermon and is struck down in full view of his congregation, suddenly the churchyard becomes the stage for Benoit Blanc’s darkest case yet.
Johnson’s Ensemble Shines in a Richer, Darker Mystery
Daniel Craig slips back into the role of detective Benoit Blanc with what many critics are already calling his richest performance in recent years. While still infused with his trademark Southern drawl and sardonic wit, this Blanc is a lot quieter, more reflective, and a man who is dissecting not only clues but human frailty itself. Wading through a maze of half-baked truths, wounded pride, and unspoken longing within Wicks’ congregation, Johnson positions Benoit Blanc as more than just the clear-eyed detective, as he becomes a foil and at times a surprising reflection of Jud Duplenticy, who is the earnest young priest played by Josh O’Connor.
O’Connor, whose performance has been singled out across early reviews, plays Jud as a man torn between faith and guilt. He was once a man of fists and fury, until one night when his punch ended more than a fight as he accidentally took the life of his opponent. Since then, he replaced the ring, where his fury designated a destination of never-ending rage, with pews, as his every prayer is a plea for forgiveness. His uneasy partnership with Blanc becomes the film’s emotional core, which creates a buddy dynamic that explores belief versus reason, empathy versus calculation. As IndieWire put it, Johnson “knows his form and format, and delivers on it — playing with tone and message but never losing sight of why these stories are so damn entertaining to watch and unravel.”
The suspects, true to Johnson’s knack for assembling knockout ensembles, are as colorful as they are broken. Andrew Scott as a bitter sci-fi writer, Kerry Washington as a tightly wound lawyer, Jeremy Renner as a disgraced doctor, Cailee Spaeny as a fragile former musician, and Glenn Close as the long-serving church matriarch. Each harbors its own secrets, resentments, and motives, giving the narrative a layered richness that critics say makes this film more textured than Glass Onion, yet still playful in its gothic-thriller energy.
Johnson’s Knives Out Reaches Its Peak Combining Suspense and Soul
For all its sinister mood, the film doesn’t abandon the sly humor that made the franchise beloved. Deadline’s Damon Wise noted that the film still keeps its playful edge. He even hinted at a lighthearted “Scooby-Doo–style” mystery unfolding within the story. Johnson relishes the absurdities of crime-solving, even as he frames them against modern anxieties as the new Knives Out Mystery revolves around disinformation echoing chambers, political fervor, and the human hunger for faith in something, anything, no matter how destructive it will be.
What elevates Wake Up Dead Man beyond clever puzzles is its willingness to sit with the idea of feeling uncomfortable and execute it flawlessly. The gothic atmosphere isn’t just stylistic window dressing, because apparently it’s a lens that is used to examine guilt, manipulation, and belief. By staging his murder mystery in a churchyard, Johnson literalizes the clash between sin and salvation, asking what it means to search for truth in a world where both faith and facts can be twisted to suit an agenda.
At 141 minutes, the film moves briskly, balancing suspense with soul-searching, and critics agree it may be Johnson’s most complete Knives Out film yet. The critics have praised Josh O’Connor for bringing a genuine amount of grace to the role, while others celebrated the way Johnson threads emotional weight into his most elaborate mystery so far.
Ultimately, Wake Up Dead Man is a story about more than an impossible crime. It’s about what drives people to believe, to deceive, and to destroy as it lingers on the narrative that how even in the darkest of places, there’s a strange, uneasy humor in watching the pieces fall into place. In bringing the franchise to its most gothic depths, Johnson proves not only that he can still surprise us, but that the Knives Out series remains one of the most vital storytelling experiments in modern cinema.
