Following its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival over the weekend, Rian Johnson’s third Benoit Blanc murder mystery, after Knives Out and Glass Onion, has been met with critical acclaim.
Wake Up Dead Man’s official synopsis reads: “Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) returns for his most dangerous case yet in the third and darkest chapter of Rian Johnson’s murder mystery opus. When young priest Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) is sent to assist charismatic firebrand Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), it’s clear that all is not well in the pews. Wicks’s modest-but-devoted flock includes devout church lady Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), circumspect groundskeeper Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church), tightly-wound lawyer Vera Draven, Esq (Kerry Washington), aspiring politician Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), town doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), best-selling author Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), and concert cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny). After a sudden and seemingly impossible murder rocks the town, the lack of an obvious suspect prompts local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) to join forces with renowned detective Benoit Blanc to unravel a mystery that defies all logic. Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Rian Johnson writes and directs Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, and assembles another all-star, award-winning cast.”
At the time of writing, Knives Out 3 has 96 per cent positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Check out some critical highlights and the release dates below.
BBC
Wake Up Dead Man functions perfectly well even when Blanc himself is nowhere around, which is a testament to Josh O’Connor and to the way Rian Johnson keeps this buoyant franchise alive.
The Guardian
A series that’s really found its footing again, a wealth of fun to be had in ways that are constantly surprising, a franchise fully woken up.
Rolling Stone
Everyone seems to be having a blast, and the filmmaker knows how to take both the ensemble he’s assembled and his congregation of Knives Out fans — call us Blanc-heads — to church, literally and figuratively.
The Wrap
Although Wake Up Dead Man is the Knives Out movie that’s most preoccupied with existential questions surrounding death, writer/director Rian Johnson’s third film in the series is also the one that’s most full of life.
Variety
Rian Johnson is just having fun, but he also sneaks a winking level of spiritual inquiry into this edge-of-your-brain mystery-thriller.
Collider
Wake Up Dead Man is twistier, darker, and more emotional than the previous two installments, in which Johnson explores ideas of faith and logic and the mythologizing that gets us through the day — all in a brilliant murder mystery.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will be released in select UK cinemas on November 28 and on Netflix from December 12, 2025.
