Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Netflix
I truly have no idea why the embargo has lifted on Netflix’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, as of this week. It is October 22, and the third Knives Out installment does not come to theaters (briefly) until November 26 and to Netflix streaming on December 12.
But, whatever the case, the numbers are in, and you may not be surprised to learn that Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig still have it. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery has a 94% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. That puts it just below the original Knives Out at a 97%, and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery at 91%. Both had 92% audience scores.
Knives Out
Rotten Tomatoes
It’s an unusual situation that Netflix has allowed an original movie a theatrical release, albeit it’s a limited one, and you’ll have to rush/find specific theaters to check it out. Netflix has done this recently with Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, and new reporting indicates it may do so with the two-hour series finale of Stranger Things. They also did two weekends of a KPop Demon Hunters sing-along show in theaters. So, they’re getting a bit flexible, at least.
The synopsis is short: “Detective Benoit Blanc sifts through a series of suspects when a monsignor turns up dead.” The cast is long and talented, as per usual, and it includes: Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Thomas Hayden Church and Cailee Spaeny. What a haul.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Netflix
What are critics saying about it? Here’s a sampling:
- Time Out – “Johnson has assembled his strongest cast yet and provides them with entertainingly ‘extra’ characters to inhabit — and for us to tut at. Best of all, Daniel Craig and Josh O’Connor form a sleuthing double act with shades of Holmes and Watson.”
- Slant Magazine – “The film pokes fun at the conventions of detective stories but never becomes so self-aware that you stop taking it seriously.”
- IndieWire – “It works, and it’s no big mystery why — Johnson knows his form and format, and delivers on it, playing with tone and message but never losing sight of why these stories are so damn entertaining to watch and unravel.”
“For now, I’d be thrilled to keep making these for the rest of my life,” Johnson said at the London Film Festival in October 2025 about the Knives Out series. Daniel Craig is similarly on board. It’s an interesting career turn for Johnson, who previously made the most controversial Star Wars movie ever, The Last Jedi. His Knives Out series has been far less debated, and mostly universally loved by both critics and audiences, which appears true across three movies now. A fourth Knives Out has not been announced, but it’s a safe bet that one is coming.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
