‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Opens to Incredible Rotten Tomatoes Score
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, the latest entry in Rian Johnson’s popular mystery series, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6. The film is a standalone sequel to Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) and the third installment in the franchise.
Daniel Craig returns as master detective Benoit Blanc, joined by a large ensemble cast including Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church.
The film is scheduled for a theatrical release on November 26 and will stream on Netflix starting December 12. On Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of critics gave the movie a positive review, while Metacritic assigned it a score of 82 out of 100, indicating universal acclaim.
Critics praised the strong chemistry between Craig and O’Connor, noting that their performances make the film’s twists and turns feel believable and entertaining. Many also highlighted the film’s atmosphere, suspenseful scenes, and the clever humor typical of the Knives Out series.
The ending received particular attention for being powerful and satisfying.
For a story that was supposed to pay homage to Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, the middle portion of this movie lost traction. The darker themes died out in the middle meat of this movie. And yet, somehow it landed super strong in its final few scenes.
Ridge Harripersad
If overlong, it’s still a thoroughly entertaining mystery adorned with plenty of atmosphere and hijinks.
Christopher Llewellyn Reed
O’Connor and Craig have electric, insanely believable chemistry, and with that, the audience can buy into their journey down the rabbit hole with every fun zig and zag along the way.
Ryan McQuade
While perhaps not the strongest of the three Knives Out films, it is still incredibly captivating and might be Johnson’s most personal film in the series yet.
Ricky Church
“Wake Up Dead Man” proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that when it comes to cinematic murder mysteries, nobody does it better.
Dan Bayer
However, some reviewers felt the story lost momentum in the middle, as the darker, more personal themes struggled to maintain traction.
The film juggles a heavier, more meaningful mystery for Blanc with the usual lighter, comic elements, and this balancing act occasionally caused pacing issues. Despite this, most agreed that the movie remains engaging and entertaining from start to finish.
… leaning instead toward a more meaningful mystery for Blanc. But it also suffers from so much narrative baggage that it fails both as the darker, personal story it wants to be and as the lighter comic escapade these films usually promise.
Trace Sauveur
Overall, while it may not be the strongest entry in the Knives Out series, Wake Up Dead Man is still highly captivating. It offers fans clever twists, memorable characters, and a mix of mystery and humor that the series is known for.
XII.XII.MMXXV. Thou shalt be seated.
— Netflix (@netflix) June 1, 2025
Save the date for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, the newest Benoit Blanc whodunnit from Rian Johnson. #TUDUM pic.twitter.com/047f8Cyo6N
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