“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” Fails to Awaken Its Writing Team

“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” the third installment of Rian Johnson’s ensemble-led mystery series, is an intriguing riddle that fluxes between comedy and horror through its portrayal of the devout and the wicked.

Set in an eerie New York church, the film, releasing in theaters Nov. 26, questions characters’ temptation, devotion and sinful corruption. The film is blasphemous with its comedy but makes for moving moments through these characters’ crises and renewed faith. 

Standout leading performances and solid yet bare-minimum supporting ones start the movie off on a hesitantly strong note. However, as the film progresses, its lack of sideplot development hinders the film’s conclusion and reveal, making it anticlimactic and the worst in the trilogy.

Luckily, Daniel Craig’s performance as detective Benoit Blanc brings back the familiar humor and charm present within its prequels, saving this film from being a bizarre installation. Craig’s (“Casino Royale,” “Queer”) performance as the flamboyantly clever lead is predictably strong, the actor’s signature serious cadence expertly masked by a thick southern accent.

As great as Craig is, this is just as much Josh O’Connor’s film as the movie is told through his character’s lens for the first hour. O’Connor (“Challengers,” “The Crown”) plays Jud Duplenticy, a priest who found God after a violent past as a boxer and is being framed by churchgoers for murdering Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). This is easily one of O’Connor’s best performances as a leading man, his animated facial expressions and defeated tone making the elaborate dialogue all the more compelling.

Brolin (“Dune,” “Avengers: Infinity War”) excels in roles as a villain armed with a gravelly voice and powerful monologues. His Wicks has garnered a cult-like following through unorthodox — to say the least — methods of spreading the gospel and giving desperate churchgoers faith. 

Despite the big names in the supporting cast, their characters are lackluster and forgettable.

Mila Kunis’ town sheriff does little in solving this mystery despite trying to be involved. Andrew Scott’s comedic relief character is rather pointless considering the film is adequately funny with or without him. 

Cailee Spaeny plays a sanguine character who is greatly misused, her sideplot of donating thousands to the church because she believes God and Wicks will heal her from her pain is overlooked for less compelling storylines like Jeremy Renner as a drunk doctor going through a divorce and on the verge of losing his license. 

As great of an actress Kerry Washington is, she seemingly reprises her role as Olivia Pope — a powerful woman with daddy issues who delivers gripping monologues. However,  her strength here isn’t as memorable and falls a bit flat due to fast pacing that races to get to the bottom of this mystery.

Glenn Close delivers a screeching performance, wailing every time a tragedy happens. Close’s portrayal as the dutiful Martha Delacroix changes the film’s genre from comedy to horror as her character is utilized for multiple jump scares.

The film borderlines horror with flashing lights, jump scares, gut-curling screams of terror and the usage of “The Phantom of the Opera” theme. The film’s cinematography is unique, capturing shots that appear as if they’re from hidden cameras and overhead before zooming in and being a part of the scene. It’s dark and reminiscent of the coloring and lighting of the first film.

Furthermore, the film overdoes the theatrics with its absurd conclusion, which seemed impossible considering the silly conclusion to its 2022 predecessor “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”

Compared to other films in the trilogy, this one took forever to get to the point as endless twists and turns became repetitive during the film’s last hour. It gets too lost in trying to make this the strongest case of the series that it gets too confusing in arriving at its obvious conclusion. 

“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” is in theaters for a limited time on Nov. 26 and on Netflix Dec. 12.