Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Netflix | Release Date: November 26, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 59 Critic Reviews
Positive:
50
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Original-CinThom ErnstDec 8, 2025
Johnson delivers a wicked satire on faith and fanaticism, a lively mockery of far-right politics cloaked in the sacred robes of a classic whodunnit. It’s feel-good entertainment with just enough spiritual cleansing to seal the deal. Read full review
100
iEmily BootleNov 27, 2025
Melodramatic to the end, it’s difficult to imagine a more perfect home-watch film for cosy winter nights. Knives Out die-hards: we are back. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonNov 24, 2025
Invoking the seven deadly sins and the Ten Commandments, nearly everyone has something to confess. In that sense, this new “Knives Out” isn’t just a whodunit, but a who-didn’t-do-it — spiritually speaking. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonNov 24, 2025
Wake Up Dead Man is one of the year’s best movies. I’ve enjoyed all three movies, but this one is the best of the “Knives Out” mysteries so far. Read full review
100
BBCCaryn JamesSep 7, 2025
With its Gothic atmosphere and deeper themes, Wake Up Dead Man has a darker tone than the previous Knives Out films. Yet it is also the funniest and most playful so far. Read full review
91
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerNov 26, 2025
It’s the strongest Benoit Blanc movie yet, thanks to the way that the best artists learn and grown from their previous works, applying those lessons to their future projects. Read full review
91
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodSep 7, 2025
Rian Johnson has seamlessly crafted another murder mystery with even more delicious twists and turns than the previous two installments. Maybe even combined. Somewhat hard to believe until you witness it for yourself. And, along with a slightly (and emphasis on “slightly”) more serious tone, the result is often smashing. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Roxana HadadiDec 15, 2025
The franchise has always centered Blanc as the champion of the underserved, but in leaning away from his shenanigans and slapstick and making space for someone like Father Jud to illustrate the film’s worldview, Wake Up Dead Man shows how much it has on its mind. Read full review
90
SlateDana StevensDec 13, 2025
Wake Up Dead Man marks not just a return to form but an expansion of the series’ potential. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 9, 2025
It’s fun, it’s smart and yes, it actually does have something to say. Delivered in this way, I think people are more inclined to listen. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesAmy NicholsonNov 26, 2025
Rian Johnson’s darkest, funniest and best installment yet in his three-film detective series. Read full review
90
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonNov 26, 2025
What really makes Wake Up Dead Man work is that Father Jud and Benoit Blanc are two peas in a pod, when it comes right down to brass tacks. Read full review
90
Film ThreatAlan NgOct 22, 2025
Rian Johnson’s Wake Up, Dead Man is more than a clever whodunnit. It’s a meditation on belief, guilt, and the stories we tell ourselves to stay righteous. What begins as a murder investigation becomes a battle between truth and faith. Read full review
90
VarietyOwen GleibermanSep 6, 2025
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. Read full review
90
TheWrapChase HutchinsonSep 6, 2025
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. Read full review
88
USA TodayBrian TruittDec 11, 2025
There’s plenty of murder, some gore and wild sequences but also a beating heart, via O’Connor’s character, that the others don’t have as much. Read full review
88
The Travers TakePeter TraversDec 5, 2025
It’s murder behind stained-glass windows as “Knives Out” detective Daniel Craig and a cast of all-star sinners find the fiendish fun in a crime story about the wages of wickedness. Don’t worry, it’s not a musical Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenDec 3, 2025
O’Connor (Challengers, The Mastermind) gives a remarkable performance, tapping into Father Jud’s spiritual struggle while also nimbly managing the movie’s sense of humor. Read full review
88
Washington PostSonia RaoNov 26, 2025
What a pleasure it is to witness a masterful storyteller at work, and to see Craig lead a franchise he so thoroughly enjoys. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoNov 26, 2025
These movies are not WHOdunits as much as WHYdunits, and it’s everything that’s under the murder and its resolution that makes this sermon so entertaining and so powerful. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineRoss McIndoeOct 9, 2025
The film pokes fun at the conventions of detective stories but never becomes so self-aware that you stop taking it seriously. Read full review
88
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiSep 10, 2025
It’s the darkest, scariest and undoubtedly finest acted of the entire detective series. Read full review
85
LooperReuben BaronSep 16, 2025
Beyond just being clever and unexpected, there's something quietly powerful to this story of truth-seekers in a post-truth world. Read full review
85
The Daily BeastNick SchagerSep 7, 2025
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. Read full review
83
IndieWireKate ErblandSep 6, 2025
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. Read full review
80
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 5, 2025
“Wake Up” can be appreciated as an excellent example of that venerable murder mystery genre – the “impossible crime” – in which no solution to the murder seems rational. But Johnson also has a bit more on his mind than this. Without being too strenuous about it, the film also probes the nature of religious belief. Read full review
80
Little White LiesCheyenne Bart-StewartDec 2, 2025
In an entertainment landscape saturated with whodunnits, it’s impressive to see Johnson maintain his topical observations and satirical jabs while confidently recalibrating to provide a mystery that shows the genre still has something meaningful to say. Read full review
80
Radio TimesPatrick CremonaNov 29, 2025
It's safe to say that this particular entry in the series gets a little darker, a little more unsettling and a whole lot weirder than either of the previous instalments. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyNov 29, 2025
Wake Up Dead Man extends its usual punchline denouement with a poignant examination of what it means to be truly righteous in an unrighteous world. Read full review
80
The RevealScott TobiasNov 26, 2025
As usual with the Knives Out series, Johnson stays well out ahead of his audience, and Craig gets more than one delightful drawing-room moment when he pulls together the elusive facts of the case. Read full review
80
Total FilmEmily GarbuttNov 26, 2025
By swapping gaudy satire for introspection (without losing any of the franchise's trademark flamboyance), Wake Up Dead Man brings Knives Out back to its roots and makes for a sequel that's almost on a par with the original. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 26, 2025
As with the previous Knives Out films, the characters are not, in fact, equally important and equally capable of murder. An inner core of suspects emerges and their guilt discloses itself incrementally at the end, as opposed to being withheld for a final reveal. What a treat though, with cracking turns from one and all and O’Connor the first among equals. Read full review
80
EmpireJohn NugentNov 24, 2025
Gothic, iconoclastic, engrossing, slyly excoriating of modern-day America and very funny to boot, it’s another solidly satisfying whodunnit from Benny B. Keep them coming, please. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenOct 15, 2025
As with the previous Knives Outs, the satire is applied in broad but enjoyable brushstrokes. Read full review
80
The TimesKevin MaherOct 13, 2025
It delivers first giggles, then twists and gasp-inducing rug-pulls, courtesy of standout performances from a cast that includes Josh Brolin, Glenn Close and a never better Josh O’Connor. Not just that but Johnson’s probing script also explores the biggest conundrum of them all: God, faith and religion. Read full review
80
NMEJames MottramOct 13, 2025
Writer-director Rian Johnson’s script isn’t quite the perfect box of tricks. It’s fairly tenuous that Blanc would turn up for this puzzler – apparently at the behest of Mila Kunis’ local cop. But it’s hard to punch down on a movie with such a riotously entertaining cast. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinOct 13, 2025
It all pays off elegantly when Blanc delivers his grand summing-up, a sequence which in vintage Knives Out fashion playfully subverts the cliché – but not too briskly to break it and spoil the fun. Read full review
80
Next Best PictureDan BayerSep 14, 2025
Rian Johnson’s resurrection of the all-star murder mystery continues with yet another flawlessly cast, cleverly written, socially relevant, supremely entertaining entry in the “Knives Out” franchise Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearSep 8, 2025
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. Read full review
80
ColliderRoss BonaimeSep 7, 2025
Three films in, Johnson continues to surprise and amaze with his ability to craft a masterful tale, one that hits everything we love about this series, while still finding new angles to approach in this world. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 7, 2025
Amidst Wake Up Dead Man’s more sombre atmosphere and grimmer sense of humour, Craig and O’Connor add additional emotional shading to a film that, like the series as a whole, is still primarily meant to be an entertaining puzzle. Read full review
80
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 7, 2025
It’s as twisty and stuffed with second and third guessing as one would want but its charmingly convoluted nature feels as elegantly composed as it felt in the original, building to a finale that leaves us with a satisfied smile. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerNov 26, 2025
Johnson may need reminding that atheists aren’t just here to provide comfort to believers. That misstep aside, Wake Up Dead Man is a cunning and entertaining mystery, a return to form for the franchise. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 10, 2025
For fans of the genre, Wake Up Dead Man delivers exactly what they have come to expect: a sharp, stylish puzzle box that is a joy to unlock. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubJacob OllerNov 26, 2025
More quaintly focused than the exuberant previous film, though with no shortage of eccentric characters or longwinded side stories, Wake Up Dead Man agreeably seeks answers both existential and earthly. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldNov 26, 2025
Wake Up Dead Man is less funny and more meditative than its predecessors: Father Jud, a man of quiet faith, inspires a certain introspection in Benoit, and the two men ponder questions of religion and mortality, which wasn’t really on my “Knives Out” bingo card but was often utterly engrossing, with the two actors finding a thoughtful chemistry. Read full review
75
The Film StageChristopher SchobertSep 6, 2025
While Wake Up Dead Man fails to reach the highs of Knives Out and Glass Onion, it nevertheless solidifies Johnson’s reliability to deliver thoughtful thrills. Read full review
70
StatusBrian LowryDec 12, 2025
The third installment in Rian Johnson’s still-entertaining spin on Agatha Christie for our times exhibits signs of yielding diminishing returns. Read full review
70
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaNov 29, 2025
Some might wish the filmmaker had avoided current politics at all, but the "Knives Out" films are very much a reflection of our modern times, and Johnson clearly has an uncomfortable but important message he's trying to preach: faith and belief are good things ... until someone starts using them the wrong way. Read full review
70
IGNCarlos MoralesSep 16, 2025
Wake Up Dead Man is a solid third entry for Benoit Blanc, finally delivering the classic-style mystery the series has sorely needed. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekDec 15, 2025
As with the previous two Knives Out installments, the conclusion is almost beside the point. It’s the getting there that matters, and the twisty road of Wake Up Dead Man is dotted with offhanded jokes and one-liners that are occasionally extremely witty. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeDec 10, 2025
It is 15 minutes too long and, with all the emotional and literal clamour, loses some of the intimacy you desire for a rural golden-age-of-crime lampoon. Read full review
60
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzNov 26, 2025
Exceptionally overlong, crammed with miscast performers putting in half the effort they should, and so overly pleased with its various (and rather middling) twists that it leaps from “clever” to “pompous” in one fell swoop, Wake Up Dead Man represents a hard and rough fall from grace. Read full review
60
Paste MagazineTrace SauveurSep 9, 2025
For a mystery, Wake Up Dead Man is surprisingly bad at making its ensemble feel essential to the stakes. Read full review
60
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiSep 7, 2025
Despite its pitfalls, Wake Up Dead Man is still enjoyable. It has its charming moments, there’s a lot to think about in terms of the story, and the cast is good, if not great, overall. It’s just hard to watch the movie and realize the mystery and excitement have waned. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 7, 2025
This puzzler with neo-Gothic trappings, while it gets off to a promising, very funny start, becomes too clever and convoluted for its own good. That becomes apparent almost as soon as the investigation gets underway and the movie starts losing its fizz. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 29, 2025
There are a few laughs and some chewy turns (Brolin, mainly) to sink our teeth into. But “Wake Up Dead Man,” for all its St. Paul Blinded on the Road to Damascus “case of pink-eye” zingers, doesn’t amuse enough to dazzle, and doesn’t get the best out of a cast that deserves better. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithDec 1, 2025
Someone makes a jokey reference to the cartoon contrivance of “Scooby-Doo,” and the comparison is brutally apt. Read full review
38
The Associated PressMark KennedyDec 1, 2025
A satisfying conclusion awaits but, truth be told, it has been a bit of a slog, with soft digressions into social critiques and the meaning of faith grafted onto a setup that, by the third movie in the franchise, shows its seams instantly. Wake up, indeed. Read full review
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