Benoit Blanc is back! And riding the best reviews for one of his whodunnits since the original “Knives Out” premiered in 2019.
Like that film and its slightly less well-regarded sequel “Glass Onion,” the new installment, “Wake Up Dead Man” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. IndieWire’s Kate Erbland, in a B+ “Critic’s Pick” review from the fest, said that this new entry is darker than the previous ones and draws inspiration from Edgar Allen Poe. The first teaser for “Wake Up Dead Man” is below. The Netflix film will be released in theaters November 26 and stream December 12.
Its director, and franchise mastermind, Rian Johnson has proven himself a master of the whodunnit form with these films, showing a knack for Agatha Christie puzzle-plotting that, well, the actual adapters of Christie haven’t shown in recent years. Not just the broad strokes like sprawling ensemble casts of big personalities, a quirky private dick in Daniel Craig‘s Blanc, endless red herrings, and an extended “reveal” of the killer, but small, subtle details: Like how Johnson repurposed the curved font on a 1980s paperback release of Christie’s “Curtain” as his “Knives Out” font. The man knows his stuff.
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“Wake Up Dead Man” takes on this current moment of misinformation (one character says, “There’s GOD in DOGE”) and offers a particularly great foil in Josh O’Connor, who is either a suspect for Blanc or someone who can team up with him. He’s joined by another (somewhat literal) murderers’ row of actors including Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington, Cailee Spaeny, Andrew Scott, and Thomas Haden Church. Plus, Jeremy Renner intriguingly not playing himself — the real-life Jeremy Renner, though not appearing in “Glass Onion,” was mentioned and his likeness featured on a vanity hot sauce called “Renning Hot.”
Maybe it was those kind of touches that made “Glass Onion” arguably less beloved than “Knives Out” itself? A lengthy prologue before all the characters assembled and the plot could begin certainly didn’t help. Regardless, though, like its predecessor, “Glass Onion” received a screenplay nomination at the Academy Awards (adapted in that case, since it was a sequel, to the first film’s original screenplay nod).
“Wake Up Dead Man” will hit theaters November 26 before streaming on Netflix December 12.
