Rian Johnson has always treated the Knives Out mysteries as more than parlour games. They’re cultural X-rays, slicing open the bodies of wealth and power to show what rots beneath.
With Wake Up Dead Man, Johnson takes his sharpest blade yet to politics and religion, staging a murder in the wondrous halls of a small town Catholic church. The setting isn’t just atmospheric … it’s integral.
Johnson doesn’t simply preach. He points squarely toward the way of MAGA-era politics and religious institutions that often prey on the vulnerable. The film’s world is filled with opportunists who don’t follow God, but a cult of personality, as the film likes to refer. Blasphemy knows no bounds, and Johnson knows how to write it.
That political edge makes this installment more urgent than its predecessors. Whereas Glass Onion might be a bit of a retread of Knives Out’s skewering of the wealthy, here he reckons more with the dogma that shapes people’s lives.
That darkness is heightened by the film’s design. Before the world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Johnson cited Edgar Allan Poe as inspiration, and it shows. It’s a more unsettling texture than the previous entries in the adventures of Benoit Blanc, and it lingers even in the film’s moments of humor.
Intriguingly, Blanc doesn’t appear for the first 30 minutes. It’s a gamble that pays off, allowing the audience to sink into the world before the detective arrives. By the time Daniel Craig steps back into the role, the mystery already feels lived in, as the audience has been trying to piece it all together by now.
The ensemble surrounding him is one of Johnson’s strongest yet. Josh Brolin, in particular, is a revelation in a thunderous turn as the Mon Señor of this church. Johnson’s writing gives him cadences that feel authentic, biblical without being hollow, and commanding without falling into parody. I was struck by his presence, feeling like he could step into the role of Daniel Plainview in some alternate timeline. And even with the weight of his character, Brolin is still able to provide some of the film’s funniest moments.
And while in a smaller role, Thomas Haden Church is another standout. His character feels weathered and fully inhabited, the kind of performance that convinces you he’s existed long before the cameras rolled. It’s textured work that anchors the film’s humanity.
This is Johnson’s most ambitious Knives Out mystery yet. It’s fun and adventurous on the surface, but layered with barbs about belief, manipulation, and a life led by love instead of fear. It may take multiple viewings to untangle all of its political and religious threads, but that complexity is part of its power.
Wake Up Dead Man proves Johnson is one of the industry’s finest writers, perfectly marrying social commentary and entertainment.
