One of Rian Johnson‘s ongoing murder mystery franchises has had a tumultuous week, but the other appears to be stronger than ever. Benoit Blanc will be back on the case (and our Netflix screens) this holiday season in “Wake Up Dead Man,” the third entry in the mystery series that began with 2019’s “Knives Out” and continued with 2022’s “Glass Onion.”
The new whodunnit sees Daniel Craig‘s brilliant detective visiting a church to look into the seemingly impossible murder of a monsignor (Josh Brolin) and investigating an ensemble of suspects played by the likes of Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Thomas Haden Church, Kerry Washington, Daryl McCormack, Jeremy Renner, Andrew Scott, and Cailee Spaeny, all while working alongside a police chief played by Mila Kunis.
In addition to the ongoing influence of Agatha Christie on the franchise, “Wake Up Dead Man” looks like it could reflect a variety of other influences from Johnson’s extensive knowledge of whodunnits and crime fiction. The Gothic undertones drew instant comparisons to the mysteries of Edgar Allan Poe, while the impossible crime and religious setting appear to invoke the work of other Golden Age mystery authors such as John Dickson Carr and G.K. Chesterton.
Like its two predecessors in the Benoit Blanc series, “Wake Up Dead Man” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where critics praised Johnson for taking the franchise in a darker direction.
“How do you battle faith and belief? For someone like Benoit, so steeped in rationality, so happy to announce he’s a heretic while literally standing in a church, the question could not be harder to answer,” IndieWire’s Kate Erbland wrote in her review. “Thankfully, Johnson and his cast are more than up for the task, guiding ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ through all the requisite twists and turns, ups and downs, revelations and Revelations. Tales are spun and then immediately tied back up into knots, and its Gothic drama provides a fresh new place for Johnson to play in his preferred genre.”
“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” opens in select theaters on Wednesday, November 26 before streaming on Netflix on Friday, December 12. Watch the trailer below.