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IMDb
imdb.com › title › tt14364480 › reviews
Wake Up Dead Man (2025) - User reviews - IMDb
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is a fine third iteration of the classic whodunnit mystery within the Knives Out franchise. To review this film, you have to either write a lengthy passage reflecting on all the themes the film shines light on, or make it short and simple.
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IMDb
imdb.com › title › tt14364480
Wake Up Dead Man (2025) ⭐ 7.4 | Comedy, Crime, Drama
December 12, 2025 - Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is a fine third iteration of the classic whodunnit mystery within the Knives Out franchise. To review this film, you have to either write a lengthy passage reflecting on all the themes the film shines light on, or make it short and simple.
Release date   Dec 12, 2025
Duration   02:24:00
Director   Rian Johnson
Rating: 7.4/10 ​ - ​ 176K votes
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IMDb
imdb.com › title › tt8946378
Knives Out (2019) ⭐ 7.9 | Comedy, Crime, Drama
November 27, 2019 - 3KUser reviews · 527Critic reviews · 82Metascore · See production info at IMDbPro · Nominated for 1 Oscar · 52 wins & 113 nominations total · Trailer 1:11 · Final Trailer · Trailer 2:35 · New Trailer · Trailer 2:35 · New Trailer · Trailer 2:18 · Official Trailer · Trailer 2:28 · Knives Out ·
Release date   Nov 27, 2019
Duration   02:10:00
Director   Rian Johnson
Rating: 7.9/10 ​ - ​ 860K votes
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IMDb
m.imdb.com › title › tt8946378 › reviews
Knives Out (2019) - User reviews - IMDb
"Knives Out" is perhaps slightly too long, but never tedious, and very well-directed by Rian Johnson (who honestly doesn't deserve all this hatred from disappointed "Star Wars" geeks)
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Rotten Tomatoes
rottentomatoes.com › m › knives_out
Knives Out | Rotten Tomatoes
November 27, 2019 - Incredibly casted, and wildly entertaining, 'Knives Out' is a fantastic murder mystery! The story is excellent and extremely funny. There are a lot of strong themes regarding wealth and privilege that are very well done.
Release date   Nov 27, 2019
Director   Rian Johnson
Rating: 92/100 ​ - ​ 25K votes
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IMDb
m.imdb.com › title › tt8946378 › criticreviews
Knives Out (2019) - Metacritic reviews - IMDb
Rian Johnson’s Knives Out is one of the most purely entertaining films in years. It is the work of a cinematic magician, one who keeps you so focused on what the left hand is doing that you miss the right.
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IMDb
imdb.com › news › ni65464697
‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Review: Set in a Church Parish, and Pairing Daniel Craig and Josh O’Connor, the Third Entry in the Series May Be the Sharpest Yet - IMDb
‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Review: Set in a Church Parish, and Pairing Daniel Craig and Josh O’Connor, the Third Entry in the Series May Be the Sharpest Yet

2025 film directed by Rian Johnson

WakeUpDeadMan_poster.jpg
Wake Up Dead Man
Wake Up Dead Man (marketed as Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery) is a 2025 American mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson. It is the third film in … Wikipedia
Ratings
7.4 / 10.0
IMDb
176K votes
93%
Rotten Tomatoes
1K votes
80.0
Metacritic
59 votes
Factsheet
Directed by Rian Johnson
Written by Rian Johnson
Produced by Ram Bergman
Rian Johnson
Factsheet
Directed by Rian Johnson
Written by Rian Johnson
Produced by Ram Bergman
Rian Johnson
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Wake_Up_Dead_Man
Wake Up Dead Man - Wikipedia
4 hours ago - The film had its international ... Netflix on December 12. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of 324 critics' reviews are positive....
Find elsewhere
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Rotten Tomatoes
rottentomatoes.com › m › wake_up_dead_man_a_knives_out_mystery
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery | Rotten Tomatoes
November 26, 2025 - Rian Johnson once again succeeds at making his Knives Out franchise something new. Josh O'Connor is brilliant, the scene with him on the phone is one of the year's best.
Release date   Nov 26, 2025
Director   Rian Johnson
Rating: 93/100 ​ - ​ 1K votes
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Knives_Out
Knives Out - Wikipedia
1 day ago - CinemaScore polls that were conducted during the opening night found moviegoers gave the film an average grade of A− on a scale of A+ to F. Screenings attracted mostly men, and approximately 73% were over 25 years of age, 46% were over 35, ...
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Roger Ebert
rogerebert.com › reviews › wake up dead man: a knives out mystery
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery movie review (2025) | Roger Ebert
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
It’s an ambitious delight, a movie that doesn’t divide the faithful from the heretic but reminds them of their common needs. If people thought that “Glass Onion” was a bit too much of a lark following the breakout success of “Knives Out,” the third Rian Johnson film in what is now a full-blown franchise, “Wake Up Dead Man,” is a correction to that “vacation mystery” tone. It's chilly, windy, and overcast in this entertaining gem, but there's a light for every darkness. Inspired by “locked door mysteries” like The Hollow Man and The Murders in the Rue Morgue, “Dead Man” sees Daniel Craig’s Beno
Rating: 3.5/4 ​
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/movies › 'wake up dead man: a knives out mystery' - review thread
r/movies on Reddit: 'Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery' - Review Thread
September 7, 2025 -

World-renowned detective Benoit Blanc returns for his most dangerous case yet.

Director: Rian Johnson

Cast: Daniel Craig, Cailee Spaeney, Jeremy Renner, Andrew Scott, Mila Kunis, Thomas Haden Church, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Kerry Washington, Josh O'Connor

Rotten Tomatoes: 100%

Metacritic: 85/100

Some Reviews:

Variety - Owen Glieberman

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is an enticingly clever and droll, nearly pitch-perfect piece of murder-mystery fun — a whodunit that lives up to the expectations set six years ago by “Knives Out,” which offered its own perfect revival of the Agatha Christie spirit, with a tasty frosting of meta cheekiness.

TheWrap - Chase Hutchinson

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.

DEADLINE - Damon Wise

After the bright, light, summery holiday special that was Glass Onion, the Knives Out franchise returns to its gothic roots with a wintry whodunit that, for some at least, might endure as the the best one yet. Where the first and second used the murder-mystery as a jumping-off point for some very funny contemporary satire, Wake Up Dead Man is much more introspective. In a funny way, it’s a little analogous to Joker 2, not because it unloads on its audience in the same acerbic way but because it poses similarly metaphysical questions about its own popularity. Why do people respond so eagerly to stories of murder and betrayal? To answer that, director Rian Johnson goes back to the greatest story ever told, using a small religious community as the setting for the third instalment.

IndieWire - Kate Erbland - 'B+'

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.

Awards Radar - Joey Magidson - 3.5 / 4

Filmmaker Rian Johnson trusts the strength of his franchise to play around with format and theme. The gothic elements on display, as well as the religious aspect, may initially seem like a left turn, but it all ends up fitting like a glove. He knows the must haves for a Knives Out flick and absolutely delivers. A few big sequences here at TIFF received ovations once completed. You just can feel that you’re in the hands of a master storyteller, so you’ll follow him anywhere. Johnson knows that and 100% makes the most of it.

The Daily Beast - Nick Schager

In terms of pure, heady kicks, it outpaces Knives Out but falls just short of Glass Onion. In the big picture, however, such distinctions are rather inconsequential; more important is that Johnson’s franchise remains a sly and sure-footed delight, as well as demonstrates, with its religiously minded latest, that it’s capable of coloring its Christie-esque mysteries in a variety of shades.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/knivesoutmovie › with the third movie out, rank all the knives out movies and give me some reasons as to why! (no spoilers!)
r/KnivesOutMovie on Reddit: With the third movie out, rank all the Knives out movies and give me some reasons as to why! (NO SPOILERS!)
December 13, 2025 -

I’ll start. Here’s my list:

  1. Knives out (won by a mile for me)

  2. Wake up dead man

  3. Glass onion

The first story is still to this day one of my favourite whodunnit stories ever written, there’s just something about it that I thought was extremely clever. The twist in the end was bittersweet but it tied up the whole story nicely (I did not leave with any further questions unanswered).

I generally have a bad memory about films I don’t love and can’t remember a single thing about glass onion as I didn’t love it.

I enjoyed the newest one more than glass onion but I felt like the story fell a bit flat for me midway through till the end and it was missing a lot of shock factor in comparison to the first film.

Keen to hear what other fans think!!!

Top answer
1 of 5
19
1 - Best partner, best villain, very tight plot 2 - Better pacing than 3, better supporting characters than 3 3 - Strong villain, good culprit, but underwhelming supporting characters All 3 are great, but for me 1 > 2 > 3
2 of 5
15
I’ll preface mine by saying I absolutely adore this franchise, and every movie in it—that includes Glass Onion, which I know gets a lot of criticism. So for me, it’s very minuscule differences between each. But my ranking goes: 3 - Wake Up Dead Man. An excellent movie that I had a ton of fun seeing in the theater. It’s great on almost every front, but something has to be last. And in this one, I found the supporting characters to be a little too undeveloped, and the story got very complex that it started to lose me the slightest bit in the second half. But still an amazing movie with a great mystery, an eerie setting, and a phenomenal performance by Josh O’Connor. 2 - Glass Onion. As I said, I know this movie is a little divisive, but I thought it was fantastic. The supporting characters were thoroughly developed, and even though Helen is still the heart of the film, this felt like the only one where Blanc was really THE protagonist—and since we all love Blanc, that worked for me. Duke being the victim instead of Miles was a genuinely great twist in my opinion. And I thought the whole idea of the villain almost getting away with it, not because they’re smart but because they’re so stupid Blanc gave them too much credit, was hilarious and clever. 1 - Knives Out. This is still the best to me and I don’t think that’ll ever change. This movie threw curveball after curveball at you without ever losing you. It’s so perfectly and cleverly written that for the majority of the runtime, you think you’re rooting for the murderer, making the benevolent detective an antagonist for a while. But at the end you realize how full of heart the protagonist really is. And “My house, my rules, my coffee” will always be a phenomenal “Fuck you” ending to the villains of the film.
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IMDb
imdb.com › title › tt11564570
Glass Onion (2022) ⭐ 7.1 | Comedy, Crime, Drama
December 23, 2022 - I'm not gonna say this movie was ... First of all, I have to say I was a big fan of a knives out, i really like its subtle humor and i believe it's one of the best movies in that genre....
Release date   Dec 23, 2022
Duration   02:19:00
Director   Rian Johnson
Rating: 7.1/10 ​ - ​ 511K votes
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NYTimes
nytimes.com › 2025 › 11 › 26 › movies › wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery-review.html
‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Review: Forgive Them, Father - The New York Times
In characteristic “Knives Out” fashion, this one’s another moderately bawdy romp with a stacked ensemble cast, chock-full of twists and turns, and laced with winking contemporary references.
Published   December 12, 2025
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IMDb
imdb.com › title › tt14364480 › criticreviews
Wake Up Dead Man (2025) - Metacritic reviews - IMDb
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is an enticingly clever and droll, nearly pitch-perfect piece of murder-mystery fun — a whodunit that lives up to the expectations set six years ago by “Knives Out,” which offered its own perfect ...
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/movies › official discussion - wake up, dead man: a knives out mystery [spoilers]
r/movies on Reddit: Official Discussion - Wake Up, Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery [SPOILERS]
December 13, 2025 -

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Summary Detective Benoit Blanc returns to solve his most dangerous case yet. Set against a darker backdrop than his previous investigations, the mystery pulls Blanc into a web of secrets, betrayal, and buried sins where every suspect has something to hide—and the truth may come at a deadly cost.

Director Rian Johnson

Writer Rian Johnson

Cast

  • Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc

  • Josh O’Connor

  • Glenn Close

  • Josh Brolin

  • Mila Kunis

  • Jeremy Renner

  • Kerry Washington

  • Andrew Scott

  • Cailee Spaeny

  • Daryl McCormack

  • Thomas Haden Church

Rotten Tomatoes: 92%

Metacritic: 81

VOD / Release On Netflix

Trailer Official Trailer