By Sara Bright
“Scooby-Dooby-Doo,” says Daniel Craig, standing over an open coffin in a crypt.
It’s a line reading that shouldn’t work. It should be ridiculous. But Craig, back in the linen suit and the foghorn accent of Benoit Blanc, delivers it with such grave, intellectual curiosity that you just nod and think: Yes, exactly. Scooby-Dooby-Doo.
We are back in the Knives Out universe. And thank god for that.
The third installment, Wake Up Dead Man (a U2 reference, if you’re keeping score), has just dropped on Netflix. And after the shiny, sun-drenched satire of Glass Onion, writer-director Rian Johnson has taken a sharp left turn into the gothic. He’s dragged us out of the billionaire’s playground and dumped us in a damp Catholic parish in upstate New York.
It’s darker. It’s grimier. And honestly? It might be the best one yet.
The Anti-Billionaire Pivot
Let’s be real. Glass Onion was fun, but it was also a bit of a cartoon. It was a sledgehammer taking a swing at Elon Musk-types, and while satisfying, it lacked the intricate, clockwork precision of the first film. It felt like Johnson was angry.
In Wake Up Dead Man, he’s not angry anymore. He’s contemplative.
The victim is Monsignor Weeks (Jeff Bridges, having the time of his life), an eccentric preacher. The suspect? Father Judd Duplantis (Josh O’Connor), a young priest who looks guilty from the first frame.
But this isn’t just a whodunit. It’s a theological debate disguised as a murder mystery.
Johnson pairs Blanc – the ultimate rationalist, the man who believes everything has a logical explanation – with O’Connor’s priest, a man whose entire life is built on faith in the unseen. It’s the X-Files dynamic: Mulder and Scully, but with more ascots and incense.
Instead of fighting, they learn from each other. And that’s the twist. In a world that loves to pit science against religion, Johnson says: Why not both?
The Ten Commandments of Murder
The film is obsessed with rules. Specifically, the rules of the detective genre.
Early on, we get a glimpse of Blanc’s reading list. It’s the heavy hitters: Edgar Allan Poe, John Dickson Carr, Agatha Christie. The masters of the “impossible crime.”
But the real ghost haunting this movie is Ronald Knox. He was a priest and a crime writer who, in 1929, wrote the “Ten Commandments” of detective fiction. Rules like: No Chinamen (a clumsy attempt to stop lazy racist stereotypes), No supernatural agencies, The detective must not commit the crime.
Johnson knows these rules. He loves them. And then, with a grin, he breaks them.
But he doesn’t break them to be clever. He breaks them to make a point about mercy.
The investigation becomes less about “who held the knife” and more about “who deserves to be saved.” It’s a compassionate film. It looks at a cast of broken people – played by a roster of actors so good it’s almost unfair (Glenn Close! Andrew Scott! Kerry Washington!) – and decides not to mock them, but to understand them.
The Architecture of a Miracle
Visually, it’s a stunner. The neogothic architecture of the church, the stained glass, the shadows – it all feels heavy and real. After the CGI gloss of the last few years of blockbuster cinema, seeing actual textures – stone, wood, velvet – is a relief.
And the writing? It’s sharp. Johnson has this ability to take a genre that should be dusty and make it feel urgent.
He realizes that we, the audience, are desperate for order. We live in chaotic times. We want to believe that if we just find the right clue, if we just pull the right thread, everything will make sense. A detective story is a secular prayer. It promises that the world is solvable.
By setting this story in a church, Johnson makes that subtext text. He draws a line between the detective’s search for truth and the believer’s search for God. Both are trying to find a pattern in the noise.
Should You Watch It?
Look, if you want explosions, go elsewhere. If you want a gritty, Nordic noir where everyone is miserable, this isn’t it.
But if you want to watch Daniel Craig have more fun than any human being should be allowed to have at work? If you want a puzzle that actually respects your intelligence? If you want to see Josh O’Connor prove once again that he is one of the most interesting actors of his generation?
Then yes. Watch it.
It’s 144 minutes long, which sounds like a lot, but it moves like a freight train. It’s funny, it’s smart, and weirdly, it’s kind of hopeful.
In a year of cynical cash-grabs and tired sequels, Wake Up Dead Man feels like a gift. It’s a reminder that stories still matter. That the truth still matters.
And, crucially, that Daniel Craig looks really, really good in a cravat.
Final Verdict: It’s a hit. A proper, old-school, gather-the-family-around-the-TV hit. It’s got the brain of a crossword puzzle and the heart of a Sunday sermon.
Amen to that.
