EAT • SLEEP • REVIEW • REPEAT
WAKE UP DEAD MAN
LONDON FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW
The reports of Knives Out’s death were greatly exaggerated.
It’s quite a difficult thing to quantify, but you’d be hard pressed to find a film in recent times that’s helped turn around the fortunes of an entire genre quite like Knives Out. A lot has happened in the six years since the first film’s release (and I mean a lot), but one of the most intriguing has been the impressive rise of the murder mystery.
In the year of our lord 2025, it’s really quite astonishing that the classic whodunit remains as popular now as it has ever been. For decades, the murder mystery has been a surprisingly bulletproof genre, therefore, it’s oddly comforting that such films are still able to attract audiences at a time when they could easily be seen as old hat, and Knives Out has helped this continued popularity immensely.
Absolutely determined to push the genre into the future, Knives Out nailed the balance between past and present perfectly, setting a high benchmark for all future whodunits as it went. But after the wobble of Glass Onion that struggled to reach its predecessor’s high standards, does Rian Johnson’s murder mystery baby really have any life left in it?
After a charismatic priest, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), is found murdered under seemingly impossible circumstances in the small town of Chimney Rock, investigator extraordinaire Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) takes up the case. Teaming up with young priest Rev. Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor), this puzzling murder pushes Blanc’s famous rationality to its limits, as he must investigate the suspicious members of the congregation and navigate a web of secrets and simmering tensions to uncover the truth.
While it was a perfectly decent whodunit, as a Knives Out film and a follow up to the perfection of the franchise’s first instalment, Glass Onion didn’t quite work. Whether it was the setting, the energy, the overloaded cast, or the covid-effected plot, something about the sequel didn’t quite click as a Knives Out film, fuelling fears that Rian Johnson’s promising series was already dead and buried.
Thankfully, if there were ever any worries that Rian Johnson had lost his Knives Out mojo now that the franchise was locked up with Netflix, they can be well and truly put to rest, as Wake Up Dead Man is not only more than a match for the first film, it manages to breathe new life into the entire series.
While no one is calling him the next Agatha Christy here, however, there’s something about the whodunit genre that Rian Johnson just gets, and that comes through loud and clear with every single scene of Wake Up Dead Man. While he’s been quietly honing his murder mystery craft on the side with his Poker Face series, you can quite clearly see that the man has learned from his Glass Onion mistakes and has come back stronger, sharper, and hungrier.
Going back to basics before immediately dialling it all up to eleven, Rian Johnson makes sure to remind us all just what made Knives Out so effective in the first place. Set in small town upstate New York (that was actually shot in small town Britain) and stuffing itself full of classic murder mystery characters and iconography, Wake Up Dead Man is a turbo-charged Agatha Christy tale with style and energy to spare, and while it certainly feels like safe whodunit territory on the surface, there’s never a point where things feel like they’re growing stale.
Now with a full handle on what Knives Out is as a franchise to both himself and his audience, Rian Johnson positively exudes confidence with everything he does here, and the result is a film that wholeheartedly embraces its genre roots while being bold enough to swing for the fences. As such, Wake Up Dead Man both looks and feels like it could’ve come from decades ago, but while there’s a comfort to be found in the film’s throwback stylings, Johnson avoids any accusations of nostalgia bating by backing it all up with a plot and a script that’s unafraid to rip up the rule book.
Rapidly twisting and turning but possessing a narrative drive that ensures that it never feels overdone or confusing, Rian Johnson’s script is razor sharp and absolutely fearless in its pursuit of the murder mystery sweet spot. And, while it never quite hits in the way the first Knives Out instalment did, it’s really not that far off.
Sure, in its pursuit of whodunit perfection, there are certainly moments when Wake Up Dead Man’s plot comes very close to overplaying its hand and tipping over into the ridiculous, yet Rian Johnson’s script is nimble enough and bold enough in its machinations to ensure we’re never in danger of descending into all-out absurdity.
Much like Knives Out and Glass Onion before it, the boldness of Wake Up Dead Man’s script isn’t confined merely to its plot dynamics, as it opts to go one step further and plug itself directly into the zeitgeist in a way that few, if any, murder mysteries of the past would’ve dared. It was certainly a ballsy move for both of the film’s predecessors to incorporate pertinent real world issues into what has largely been a cosy, politic-free genre, and Wake Up Dead Man follows suit by not only broaching these delicate conversations, but positively revelling in them.
In a thinly veiled jab at Donald Trump and the current era of populist, cult-of-personality politics, Rian Johnson throws us into a world that feels comfortable on the surface yet vibrates with a real world relevance that puts it above almost all its genre peers. Some of the antics and character types can feel a little on the nose at times, however, Johnson’s writing is so sharp and finely tuned that it never becomes a problem.
While the real world themes of Glass Onion were a little on the heavy handed side and often overshadowed the plot itself, that’s never the case with Wake Up Dead Man, as Johnson ensures that the film’s socio-political themes are cleverly woven into the very fabric of a plot that is, let’s be honest, the primary reason why you turn up and pay good money to watch a whodunit in the first place. Thankfully, Rian Johnson knows this, with Wake Up Dead Man’s plot shining and really singling it out as an instant whodunit classic.
With a clear desire to ensure the film has a message, and with a cast as stacked as it is here, it would be so easy to get distracted and forget the basics, however, Johnson keeps his eyes firmly on the prize and the results speak for themselves. Yes, the cast is just as rammed with A-list talent as it has been for every Knives Out instalment so far, however, like the first film, the star-studded ensemble inform rather than distract from Wake Up Dead Man’s mission.
The cast’s core, in particular, is exceptionally strong, with Josh O’Connor and Josh Brolin playing adversarial priest roles with real depth, complexity, and density. Around them, the characters are a little less defined and certainly not as strong as those in the first Knives Out, yet from Glenn Close to Jeremy Renner to Kerry Washington and everyone in between, the entire ensemble plays their part to perfection and with the kind of wholehearted energy that this brand of murder mystery cinema demands.
Which, of course, leaves us with Daniel Craig’s iconic detective, who, while he may take something of a back seat in Wake Up Dead Man’s first act, eventually grows into the film to put in his finest Benoit Blanc performance to date, adding a surprising level of shade and definition to a character that could’ve so easily become a one-note joke. Who knows where the murder and intrigue will take Craig’s southern fried Poirot next, but you just know he’s going to continue thriving in the role for as long as Rian Johnson keeps cranking out these films.
After the (slight) dip of Glass Onion, Knives Out has arisen with Wake Up Dead Man. A devilishly plotted murder mystery, classic whodunnit vibes, Rian Johnson’s razor sharp writing, and cracking performances from an all-star ensemble combine for a wild, twisty, ridiculously accented ride that gives the entire Knives Out franchise a new lease of life just as it was threatening to fade away entirely.
