Rian Johnson’s third Knives Out instalment, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, may just be the best of the trilogy. Third time’s the charm!
After the disappointment of Johnson’s second Knives Out movie, Glass Onion, Wake Up Dead Man rediscovers the charm of the first film, rekindling the spellbinding whodunnit spark. However, in this edition, the murder mystery is a two-hander with electric chemistry and performances from Challengers’ Josh O’Connor and Queer’s Daniel Craig.
We meet young priest Reverend Jud Duplenticy (O’Connor), who turned to Christ after he killed a man in the boxing ring, assigned to the small parish in upstate New York. It’s here, in a house of God, where an impossible murder plays out like a biblical miracle. Arriving in the quaint village, Jud is met with the fiery wrath of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). Jefferson immediately sets the tone for Jud’s new priest tenure with detailed confessions of his masturbation sins.
Johnson’s film plays like an Agatha Christie adaptation, paying homage to the classic whodunnit tropes. The film orbits a perfectly impossible crime of a locked door mystery in a neo-Gothic church but sprinkled with contemporary references, like social media’s political influence and a Phantom of the Opera jumpscare. Somewhat surprisingly, it’s not until around the 40-minute mark that the suave, canonically queer Benoit Blanc (Craig) returns, but it’s well worth the wait. His crooning southern accent is a welcome return, but O’Connor has impressively run the show until this point.
Josh O’Connor is standout
Daniel Craig is as brilliant as ever as the monologising detective, but Josh O’Connor is standout. He’s the film’s anchor, flitting with ease between dramatic and comedic handling in an array of cosy knits from under which a neck tattoo peaks out.
Alongside these two, Wake Up Dead Man boasts an impressive cast of suspects. This includes Fleabag’s Andrew Scott, Priscilla’s Cailee Spaeny, Scandal’s Kerry Washington, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’s Daryl McCormack, Fatal Attraction’s Glenn Close and also The Hurt Locker’s Jeremy Renner.
Out of them all, Glenn Close as Martha, a staunch believer and devout keeper of the congregation’s tradition, is particularly fun as she appears from thin air with a ghostly omnipresence. However, with such a stacked cast, it’s a real shame that Blanc’s partner, Hugh Grant’s Phillip, doesn’t make a cameo and sadly isn’t even mentioned.
With dramatic lighting changes, aided by the church’s grandiose architecture, Johnson finds an appropriate setting for this story of misdeeds. Slow zooms gradually reveal the dark reality of co-opted religious power that underpins Wake Up Dead Man. The investment in small-town life is also a welcome change after Glass Onion’s sidestep. With this third film, Knives Out is back, and Johnson has O’Connor to thank for it.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery was screened at the London Film Festival. The film will be released on Netflix on 12 December.
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