Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)

Amy picked this for our annual Christmas day movie and all three of us liked a lot the yarn with Josh O'Connor and Josh Brolin as upstate New York priests and Daniel Craig returning to the franchise as the Southern detective assigned to solve the crime. The outstanding ensemble cast includes Glenn Close, Mila Kunis (both wonderfully unglamorous), Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church, and Jeffrey Wright.

Rian Johnson writes and directs and his brother Nathan Johnson is the composer, just as they did for the last two Knives Out mysteries. I'm streaming the soundtrack on Apple Music as I write.

We're not bible scholars, so we looked up the meaning of the the road to Damascus, referenced in the movie. Apparently it indicates a flash of insight and includes a blinding light. That tidbit is not included in imdb's list of 35 interesting trivia items. Cinematographer Steve Yedlin  occasionally incorporates blinding light into his work here.

"A Knives Out Mystery" is not in the official title, but was very useful for marketing this third installment. Amy, Jack, and I saw the previous one on Christmas day in 2022 as part of our holiday tradition of a Christmas day movie, every year since 2006 (except 2020).

O'Connor was last blogged for Challengers, Brolin for Dune, Craig, both Johnsons, and Yedlin for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Close for Swan Song, Kunis for The Spy Who Dumped Me, Renner for Arrival, Washington for The Prom, Scott for All of Us Strangers, McCormack for Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Church for Acidman, and Wright for Highest 2 Lowest.

Rotten Tomatoes are reanimated with averages of 92 and 93%. Amy, Jack, and I streamed it on Netflix on, as promised, December 25.

Knives Out (2019)

A big group of us really liked this murder mystery with a taut screenplay, a terrific ensemble cast, and impressive production values, especially the mansion where much of it takes place.

To name a few: Daniel Craig is the detective (with a southern drawl), Christopher Plummer the dead mystery writer, Ana de Armas his sweet nurse, Jamie Lee Curtis his daughter, Don Johnson her husband, Chris Evans their son, Michael Shannon her brother, Toni Collette her sister-in-law, and Frank Oz (best known as a founding voice member of Sesame Street/The Muppets and the voice of Yoda in all (?) the Star Wars movies) in a cameo as the lawyer who reads the will in the third act.

Rian (pronounced Ryan) Johnson directs from his own clever script, in which the family members are all hilariously entitled.

The production design by David Crank includes the "knife chair" featured in the trailer as well as intricate details in every room. The Ames Borderland Mansion in North Easton Massachusetts is credited on imdb but I'm not sure if both the interiors and exteriors were used. We also enjoyed the cinematography by Steve Yedlin. I'm growing very fond of the frequent 21st century use of drone photography in movies.

The score by Rian Johnson's brother Nathan Johnson can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music, and more.

Craig was last blogged for Logan Lucky (in which he also affected a southern accent), de Armas for Blade Runner 2049, Plummer for All the Money in the World, Johnson for Book Club, Evans for Avengers: Infinity War, Shannon for The Current War, Collette for Madame, Oz for Inside Out, Rian Johnson for Looper (I did not see Star Wars VIII), Crank for The Master, and Nathan Johnson for Don Jon (directed and written by Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

Trivia: Rian Johnson has cast Gordon-Levitt in most, if not all of his movies, and, in this one, Gordon-Levitt provides a voice on the phone.

The 2:10 length isn't really a problem, as evidenced by Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average of 97 and its audiences' of 93%.