Director Rian Johnson has returned with his latest instalment in his Knives Out franchise. After uncovering the truth about the death of Harlan Thrombey, and revealing the motivations of a killer on a remote island, Benoit Blanc returns to solve the murder of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. This latest film is more gothic and dark than its predecessors, and features Josh O’Connor and Daniel Craig in strong leading roles. It unfortunately fails to do anything new with the story and becomes a 2 hour imitation of what the original film did so well, but still might remain a fun streaming film that people will probably forget about by the time the new year rolls around.

When Monsignor Jefferson Wicks turns up dead, Benoit Blanc turns up to the small town church to uncover what happened. As motivations are slowly revealed, and the monsignor is exposed for being a manipulative controller rather than a respectful religious leader, it becomes clear that the crime could have been committed by anyone.

Standing out in the film from his first lines is the central performance from Josh O’Connor. Always keeping his performances feeling fresh, following his roles in Guadagnino’s Challengers and Reichardt’s The Mastermind, he leans into his comedic abilities here, playing the young foul-mouthed passionate priest Rev. Jud Duplenticy. Sent to work at Wicks’ church after getting in a fight at his previous one, O’Connor perfectly captures the passion of Duplenticy for his work in the new church, while still portraying him with an air of naivety and a sense of his head being in the clouds.

O’Connor perfectly complements Daniel Craig’s more stoic beloved portrayal of Benoit Blanc, that has come to be a classic in this franchise. It seems in this third instalment that Craig has been able to ham it up even more this time, further poking fun at the stereotypical tropes Blanc is written to embody fully and proudly.

Along with a brand new ensemble cast, the inclusion of these new characters every time, with the constant of Benoit Blanc driving the narrative forward keeps the Knives Out films remain fresh. But these new performances can only carry it so far, because at a certain point, it does begin to feel a little old. For myself, this point was reached with this third instalment.

It is unfortunate to always compare films to others, but in this case, it is hard not to compare it to the first two. Knives Out (2019) was an instant classic. It spoke to real anxieties of the modern age like immigration and wealth, and had a genuine twist that even took twists in mystery stories to the next level, and used this to say even more about its themes of inequality and immigration.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) was a surprisingly big departure from the first. It was much more silly, but the ensemble cast worked well together to create a film that on the surface seemed much different from the first, but at its core was still trying to emulate the shock and impact the first had. It did not succeed as well as its predecessor, but it was a fun streaming film even if it did fall flat of having anything truly strong to say.

With the most recent instalment, it seems like they are just continually trying to shock us. A murder turns into a whodunit turns into a game of pointing fingers turns into Benoit Blanc recontextualizing the whole story to reveal the killer. So even though the second one kind of failed in doing anything groundbreaking, it is unfortunate for the third one to continue in its footsteps. It feels more like a story of not knowing when to stop, rather than one improving on what was wrong in the attempt before.

I think that Wake Up Dead Man was trying to say something about religion, forgiveness, and understanding. It succeeds a bit, and did have me leaving satisfied. But I think when you set up your films to have such a big plot twist every time, it is hard for audiences to think of anything else. The whole time, I was trying to pick up clues so that I could know, before Blanc told us, who the killer was. But because of this, I really only was focussing on trying to beat the characters in the film to the final reveal, unable to take in anything but this final showdown, anticipating its arrival before all the information was ever presented to me.

On top of this, there also comes a point where audiences stop trying to solve the mystery in general. When a director and writer like Rian Johnson with his Knies Out films has become so strongly associated with these huge and unexpected twist ending reveals, they become so convoluted that no one could have ever guessed them even if they were watching the film on 0.5x speed with a pad of paper and pen in their hands taking notes with every line in the film. There needs to be a better balance in these films, one that allows the audience to feel like they can come close to knowing the twist on their own, without it becoming a viewing experience solely surrounding solving an unsolvable puzzle. It just becomes exhausting, and for a film over two hours, it does begin to feel like a real drag by the end.

Further, with regards to the films themes of religion and forgiveness, it seems that the second and now third Knives Out films all are merely imitations of what the first one succeeded in doing so well. The social commentary in Knives Out (2019) is so well executed, tied back in to the twist and every background of every supporting character. In the new films, there seems to be much less of a social through line, or instead it seems like the through line is the big twist we are anticipating, rather than having anything important to say. I can still vividly picture Knives Out (2019) and its ending and twist, and can clearly articulate what it was saying, but it is taking me a lot of reading and googling about the 2022 and 2025 instalments to remember what happened at the end of these more recent films, highlighting the impact these two later films clearly didn’t have.

Aside from the flaws with the overall structures of these films, it seems like this is the weakest ensemble yet. Sure they are brilliant actors on their own, but in this film it feels like they are always just on their own. They never really have strong ensemble moments together where they can play off each other to see their character’s properly interact whether in mystery or in comedy, so even the strengths of the first two films lying in their stellar ensemble casts really fails to succeed in this third film.

Josh O’Connor and Daniel Craig are stellar in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, which has come to be expected of the two actors. The rest of the film leaves a lot to be desired, and makes me very weary of a possible future where these films keep getting made every three years. Hopefully something will change, but at least if this does continue to happen, we will continue to have Benoit Blanc on our screens, even if he was probably made for something better.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery was screened at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Image courtesy of TIFF and Netflix.