'Wake Up Dead Man' Review: Daniel Craig Goes For a Three-Peat and Excels as Rian Johnson's World-Famous Detective

"I kneel at the altar of the rational."

In 2019, I was living in Austin, TX, celebrating the start of the holiday season by visiting my favorite movie theater chain, Alamo Drafthouse. A staple of the Austin area, Alamo has since become synonymous with cinephiles and decent food among loyal patrons. This particular visit, I pre-ordered a full Thanksgiving meal to watch Rian Johnson's newest whodunit, "Knives Out," complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, and a wine delivered to my seat by a cheerful Alamo server.

It was, and still is, the greatest movie theater-going experience of my life.

Maybe it was the tryptophan, or perhaps it was simply the desire to witness an old-fashioned murder mystery set to an Americanized Agatha Christie premise, but discovering "Knives Out" during Thanksgiving time has become somewhat of a tradition. So when I got the chance to attend the premiere of the standalone sequel, "Glass Onion," at the Toronto International Film Festival three years later, I jumped at the chance. Johnson continued his Benoit Blanc series with an expanded ensemble cast and a new mystery to investigate while keeping his audience on the edge of their seats.

Now, the modern master returns with a third installment in a growing franchise, "Wake Up Dead Man," and it's darker, stylized, and a treat for anyone like me who has become a gigantic fan of Rian Johnson's quirky characters. Just in time for Thanksgiving, Johnson returns as writer/director with his central "World's Greatest Detective" Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) in tow, but this time, Blanc and Johnson take their audience to church.

Detective Blanc is sent to Upstate New York, where a crime has been committed at the historic Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, a church that's seen better days and a dwindling community of parishioners. Led by blowhard Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) and right-hand woman Martha (Glenn Close), the remaining flock of dedicated churchgoers includes a local doctor (Jeremy Renner), a lawyer (Kerry Washington) and her up-and-coming politician relative (Daryl McCormack), a former cellist (Cailee Spaeny), a famous author (Andrew Scott), and Martha's groundskeeper husband (Thomas Hayden Church).

What Blanc discovers when he first walks through the church doors is the new, young priest, Reverend Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor). The Reverend is a former boxer turned priest who welcomes religious tradition but balks at the Monsignor's dark messaging and unconventional demeanor. How the church is run is at the heart of the mystery Blanc is sent to investigate alongside local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis)...and the youthful Reverend might be the prime suspect.

And that, dear reader, is all I can say about that.

"Wake Up Dead Man" is a deeply menacing whodunit (and a howdunit) that mixes politics and religion in ways only Rian Johnson can craft for a willing audience. The ensemble, like the other iterations in the franchise, excels at every twist and turn. Just when you believe you know who did it or what is happening, ghosts rise from the dead in this multi-layered high-wire act.

But what makes this third installment so compelling, outside of the fact that Craig is obviously enjoying himself more and more in a role he's become well-known for, is that Johnson uses this film to elevate the demons within the mystery genre. Drawing on many aspects of famous novels like "The Hollow Man" by John Dickson Carr, "Wake Up Dead Man" transforms the franchise into a more unsettling, grisly story. Much like when the "Harry Potter" movies grew into a series of flicks that appeal more to mature fans, so too has this newest "Knives Out" entry.

The startling thing about "Wake Up Dead Man," however, is that Daniel Craig takes a bit of a backseat as the lead. Josh O'Connor, culminating a fantastic year of four new releases in movie theaters in 2025 alone, leads this ensemble with ease and gravitas. Balancing the line of humor and intrigue, O'Connor's priest must clear his name while also solving the mystery at the center of the action…something of which the British performer is convincingly able to do as he is featured in almost every frame of this 144-minute film.

"Wake Up Dead Man" holds its own in a series of three films that have common threads but feel new with every viewing. With O'Connor and Craig in prime positions of power throughout, the movie succeeds by keeping its audience engaged in a dreary, rain-soaked setting that echoes the strengths of Fall and Winter in its production design. When you think the mystery has been solved, Johnson throws more fuel on a fire that keeps everyone guessing until the very end.