Wake Up Dead Man is the creepy one

As I write this, it is my final night in Toronto for TIFF and Wake Up Dead Man did not fit into my schedule. I am bereft, I am bothered, I am bemused, I am bereaved(?), I am exhausted and running out of b-synonyms. The teaser for Wake Up Dead Man dropped yesterday. Have I watched it a million times? Not literally but figuratively, yes. It’s the creepy one! It’s the locked door one! It’s the creepy locked door one!

In the murder mystery genre, there are some standard settings. There is the country manor, the ski chalet, the exotic locale, the train, the boat, and the locked room. There are also some common styles within the genre, such as procedural, gothic, and comedic. Knives Out is a comedic murder mystery that takes place in a country manor, The Glass Onion is a comedic murder mystery that takes place in an exotic locale. Wake Up Dead Man, the third in the “Knives Out Mystery” series, is a locked door mystery with gothic stylings. Not saying it won’t be funny, too, but the emphasis in this teaser is definitely leaning more creepy than chuckles. Think less Agatha Christie this time around, more Edgar Allen Poe.

(More TIFF gossip: There is a fight over the “Knives Out Mystery” branding. One, this franchise should have been called “The Benoit Blanc Mysteries” and everyone knows it, and two, Rian Johnson and Netflix brass fought about including the “Knives Out Mystery” branding on the film. Compromise: that tag appears in the marketing, like this teaser, but not in the film itself. No one is really happy either way, allegedly supposedly yadda yadda.)

Wake Up Dead Man looks great, with Josh O’Connor playing a priest trying to solve the death of his monsignor, played by Josh Brolin, who was murdered in a purportedly locked room. Everyone at TIFF is buzzing about this film—it’s currently rated 96% on Rotten Tomatoes—and while festival audiences are susceptible to hype, the Benoit Blanc mysteries are two-for-two when it comes to living up to the hype in the real world. 

I cannot WAIT to see Wake Up Dead Man, except that I have to wait until November UGH. Generally, I am not ready for summer to be over—is it just me or was summer 2025 like five minutes long—but spooky season IS my favorite season, and this spooky season comes with the spooky Knives Out. I really can’t wait for it.