“It’s storytelling” – with these words, director Rian Johnson lets his characters describe the circumstances of the world surrounding them. Wake Up Dead Man was released on Netflix in December 2025, after a limited theatrical run in November. It is the third installment in the A Knives Out Mystery series, after its eponymous 2019 debut Knives Out, and the 2022 sequel Glass Onion. The film follows Father Jud Duplenticy, who, on an assignment as assistant pastor at a Catholic church in New England, must navigate an intricate web full of conspiracy and intrigue. There, he encounters Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, the self-proclaimed chosen warrior of God, who has managed to cultivate a cult-like following in the few regulars who still attend his church. These people who attend his service seem to worship Wicks much more than they ever did Jesus Christ, and are manipulated and controlled by him at every turn. Seeing this, Father Jud makes it his personal mission to rescue this “flock” from the wicked Wicks' bad influences and help them return to the true meaning of Christianity. This ultimately leads to a sequence of subtle antagonisms, strategic power plays, outright fighting, and, eventually, death, thereby catching the attention of the infamous Detective Benoit Blanc.
In my opinion, the idiom “third time’s the charm” deeply resonates. While sticking faithfully to the blueprint he has crafted for his Benoit Blanc adventures, director Rian Johnson still manages to not only deliver a story that feels fresh, but one that I think even surpasses its precursors. Thus, Wake Up Dead Man follows similar storyline patterns as its predecessors; a truly good, well-meaning person gets involved in a mystery while being surrounded by frankly terrible people, and along the way becomes something of a Watson to Benoit Blanc’s Sherlock. The thing that I feel sets Wake Up Dead Man apart from the prior entries in the series, however, is how it handles its themes; that is, much more overt and pronounced. While I would argue that all installments in the Knives Out series are actually a whodunit only at the surface level, and really social commentary at their core, in Wake Up Dead Man this is brought to a previously unseen level. Given that it seems like the messages in his first two movies have gone largely ignored by the world, it feels as though now Rian Johnson wants to shake us by our shoulders and say, “How much more on the nose do I possibly have to get before you people finally start to get it? Be better!” And true to his blueprint, Johnson continues to write side characters to be exactly like people we often encounter in real life. The kinds of people who will throw themselves at the feet of anyone who has that “cult of personality thing” and worship them above all else. The kinds of people who will blindly hate anyone they are taught to hate, while simultaneously claiming to be virtuous. In Wake Up Dead Man this includes a formerly accomplished writer who has not seen success since turning alt-right; a disabled woman who desperately wants to be healed by God, no matter how much money she has to pay to the Church; a doctor who has become a misogynist after his divorce, a young man who will adopt any and all values if they could possibly help him become a successful politician; and two women, who couldn’t be more different, who grew up in the Church and have been raised to be absolutely obedient, knowing nothing different.
I would say that there is much purpose in the directors’ chosen aesthetic of a small-town Catholic church. Everything in this movie is about storytelling and the construction of myths. This includes not only the robes, rites, and rituals of Catholic service but also the church itself with its grand neo-Gothic architecture, which “has more in common with Disneyland than Notre-Dame,” as said by Father Jud himself. Furthermore, the themes of Christianity in this film have another use; not only does Wake Up Dead Man hold a mirror up to the worst parts of our society, but it also tells us to have grace for the people who were led astray by such cult-like figures and movements, and ultimately asks us to allow them to repent and redeem themselves. Our main character, Father Jud, has a dark past that he has turned away from. Even though he has done bad things, I, as a viewer, am very much able to forgive him because he has clearly sought repentance for his actions. Now, he is making it his life’s purpose to save others the same way he considers himself to have been saved by Christianity. And he sticks to this mission at all costs, even if that means being proverbially “Daniel in the lion’s den”, trying to preach to people he knows do not want to hear him. While this description of the film’s themes may make it seem to be of an overly religious and preaching nature, Father Jud’s attitude is nicely contrasted with the staunch atheism of Benoit Blanc, bringing the story to surprisingly neutral grounds. While watching, I never once felt like I was being proselytized. The film essentially functions as a parable; while the mystery is entertaining on its own, it is also a vehicle to deliver the deeper moral teachings of the story. Greed is the ultimate evil that is poisoning humanity. People may make bad choices in life, but it matters more what they do afterwards. This emphasis on the ability to choose to do better deeply resonates with me as a viewer, especially in the scenes that the movie calls “Road to Damascus” moments, leading the audience, myself included, to second-guess alongside the characters about the things that really matter.
In conclusion, Wake Up Dead Man is a deeply impactful movie that hit me right in my emotional core, with a classic whodunit twist that I did not see coming, and an ending that left me close to tears. While the messages it tries to deliver may lack subtlety at times, I do not think this makes them any less effective. Josh O’Connor as Father Jud delivers one of my favorite performances of his yet, and the film even makes me enjoy the actors in the cast that I usually dislike. Wake Up Dead Man is the type of movie that I want to immediately rewatch after it ends, just to see all the little details I missed the last time around. Overall, the fact that Rian Johnson still manages to surpass himself makes me very excited about what the future holds for the adventures of Benoit Blanc.
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