Verdict: 4.5/5. Wake Up Dead Man is the best Knives Out film since the original — a locked-room murder mystery set inside a small-town church that turns out to be Rian Johnson’s most soulful, thematically ambitious whodunit yet. Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc returns, but the film belongs just as much to Josh O’Connor’s troubled young priest.
Where Glass Onion chased satire and spectacle, this third entry slows down and trusts its characters. The result is a mystery that works as a detective story and as a drama about belief, guilt and forgiveness — streaming on Netflix after a limited cinema run.
| Director | Rian Johnson |
| Cast | Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church |
| Release date | 26 November 2025 (limited cinemas); 12 December 2025 (Netflix) |
| Runtime | 2 hours 24 minutes |
| Genre | Mystery thriller |
| Rotten Tomatoes | 92% critics; around 93–94% audience |
| Metacritic | 80/100 |
| Verdict | 4.5/5 — the franchise’s most soulful mystery |
The Story: A Murder in the House of God
Father Jud Duplenticy (O’Connor) is a young priest with a past: a former boxer who killed a man in the ring. After punching a fellow deacon, he is reassigned to Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, a sparsely attended parish in upstate New York led by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Brolin), a firebrand preacher whose hellfire sermons have driven away all but his most loyal followers.
Behind the pulpit politics sits a missing inheritance — a small fortune amassed by Wicks’ grandfather, the parish’s founder — and a congregation full of people with reasons to want the Monsignor gone. During a Good Friday service, Wicks is found dead in a closet adjoining the chancel, a knife in his back, with the whole congregation present and nobody seeing who did it. It is the classic impossible crime, and Jud, the obvious suspect, writes to Benoit Blanc for help.
Johnson structures the film as a genuine locked-room puzzle, even nodding to John Dickson Carr’s The Hollow Man, the genre’s defining text. But the mystery is also a vehicle for something rarer in a franchise whodunit: a serious argument about faith. Jud believes; Blanc, a rationalist atheist, does not. Their debates are the film’s spine, and they give the final reveal an emotional weight the earlier films never quite reached.
Performances: O’Connor Steals the Show
Josh O’Connor is superb as Jud — earnest, volatile, haunted by the violence in his own past and desperate to believe that grace is real. Craig, meanwhile, is on relaxed, purring form as Blanc, arriving fashionably late to the story and then taking elegant command of it.
Josh Brolin is thunderous as Wicks, a man who mistakes his own ego for divine calling, while Glenn Close is quietly magnificent as Martha Delacroix, the devout church lady who knows where every body is buried. The supporting ensemble — Renner, Washington, Andrew Scott, Spaeny and Kunis as the local police chief — all get their moments, and Johnson gives each suspect a credible motive before the rug is pulled.
Direction and Craft
Johnson directs with confidence and patience. The church itself — cold stone, candlelight, stained glass — becomes a character, shot with a gothic chill that suits the material. The film’s structure, which withholds Blanc for much of the opening stretch, is a bold choice that pays off: by the time the detective arrives, we already care about the suspects.
At two hours and 24 minutes it is the longest Knives Out film, and the middle act occasionally lingers over exposition. But the film earns its length: the final act, in which Blanc reconstructs the murder in front of the congregation, is the most satisfying deduction sequence Johnson has staged — and the coda, about forgiveness rather than punishment, lands with genuine feeling.
What Works
- The faith-versus-reason debate: Jud and Blanc’s arguments give the mystery real thematic depth.
- Josh O’Connor’s performance: the emotional anchor of the whole film.
- A proper impossible crime: the locked-room setup is fair, clued and genuinely surprising.
- The ensemble: a deep bench of suspects, each sharply drawn.
What Doesn’t
- Blanc arrives late: Craig is largely absent for the first stretch, which may frustrate viewers who come for him.
- Length: at nearly two and a half hours, the middle sags slightly under the weight of backstory.
Verdict
Wake Up Dead Man is a whodunit with a soul. Rian Johnson takes the franchise’s familiar pleasures — the starry ensemble, the baroque puzzle, the rug-pull reveal — and uses them to ask what belief is actually for. It is funny, gripping and, by the end, unexpectedly moving: the best Knives Out mystery since the first, and one of the finest mystery films of the year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Wake Up Dead Man streaming on Netflix?
Yes — limited cinemas from 26 November 2025, streaming worldwide on Netflix from 12 December 2025.
Do I need to watch the earlier Knives Out films first?
No. Like its predecessors, it is a standalone mystery with a new cast of suspects. Knowing Blanc’s character helps, but the story is self-contained.
What is Wake Up Dead Man‘s Rotten Tomatoes score?
At the time of writing: 92% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, an audience score in the low-to-mid 90s, and 80 out of 100 on Metacritic.
Who plays the victim, Monsignor Wicks?
Josh Brolin plays Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, the firebrand priest whose murder during a Good Friday service sets the mystery in motion.