2025 • Netflix Studios
Rated: PG-13
Length: 2 hr 24min
Comedy ~ Crime ~ Drama ~ Gothic ~ Mystery ~ Thriller
Director: Rian Johnson
Writer: Rian Johnson
Actors: Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church.
Benoit Blanc Is Back!
Official Trailer
Wake Up Dead Man (2025) – Review
Wake Up Dead Man pulls Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) into his darkest case yet, summoned to a tight-knit rural community gripped by scandal after the shocking death of the fiery, domineering leader of the local Church Priest Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin).
The prime suspects are:
- Rev. Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor), a troubled young priest and former boxer
- Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), the devout widow and church pillar
- Chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis), the local police head
- Dr. Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), a divorced physician
- Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), a slick lawyer
- Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), a reclusive author
- Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny), a pained former cellist
- Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), an ambitious politico
- Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church), the groundskeeper
They all weave a tense net of alibis, grudges, and histories amid Sunday services and midnight reckonings that expose abuses and shattered vows. What starts as a tidy whodunit spirals through labyrinthine twists, feints within feints, alibis that devour each other, revelations that flip loyalties upside down, and a mid-film bombshell that redefines every suspect’s soul, culminating in a finale as merciless and mind-melting as Blanc’s previous cases, all without a single predictable step. The mystery tightens around these players, pushing Blanc into moral gray zones the prior films merely grazed.
Where Knives Out skewered privilege and Glass Onion mocked tech excess, Wake Up Dead Man excavates power, belief, and institutional weapons. It plays like a gothic church whodunnit, playful and twisty, but heavier emotionally with brutal fallout when truths erupt. Classic puzzle joys (alibis, herrings, reveals) persist, yet it probes who earns forgiveness or escapes when the “godly” circle wagons.
Craig continues to have a blast as Benoit Blanc, but this time the charm and drawl hide a man genuinely shaken by what he uncovers. The case forces Blanc to confront not just who committed the crime, but what kind of world keeps letting the same patterns repeat, giving him some of his most haunted and introspective moments in the Knives Out Trilogy. Yet even in the darkest scenes, Craig threads in just enough wry humor and observational wit to keep Blanc feeling like the same eccentric detective fans love, now pushed to his limits instead of simply amused by human folly.
True to the series, the ensemble is loaded with memorable suspects and side players, each with sharp, specific motives and grudges that gradually peel back as the investigation deepens. Performances bounce between fervent righteousness, brittle denial, and raw vulnerability, underscoring how faith, shame, and community pressure can twist people in different directions. The dynamic between the younger characters and the older “pillars” of the town is especially juicy, framing the mystery as a generational clash over who gets to define truth and morality. Josh O’Connor‘s brooding Jud steals scenes as faith’s black sheep; Glenn Close‘s Martha and Josh Brolin‘s Wicks embody belief’s sharp edges.
Wake Up Dead Man is highly recommended for anyone who loved the first two films and is ready for a darker, more emotionally loaded spin on Blanc’s world. It keeps the clever structure, rug-pull twists, and character-driven revelations that made the other two movies a hit, while pushing deeper into messy questions about belief, justice, and who gets to walk away clean when the dust settles. You know what Bobby says:
Turn off the lights and devices,
Make some popcorn 
Grab a beverage
and Stream
Wake Up Dead Man
on Netflix!
Wake Up Dead Man (2025) – Review by Amelia @ Streaming Movie Night.
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Wake Up Dead Man (2025) – Review © 2025 Streaming Movie Night
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