The movie begins with Jud Duplenticy, a young Catholic priest who is sent to Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, a church in a small New York town run by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks. Wicks is a charismatic but abrasive preacher, which causes most who attend his sermons to be driven away—but those who remain become drawn into his abusive cult of personality. As Jud realizes the truth of Wicks’ parish, he resolves to exorcise Wicks and return the church to a place of love and piety. Wicks, naturally, does not take well to this, and uses his power to turn the congregation against Jud.
In the midst of this, Holy Week occurs. During the service on Good Friday, Wicks takes a break in a closet off the side of the pulpit as Jud temporarily takes over. Everyone hears a thump from the closet, and witnesses Wicks collapsed on the floor. When they investigate his body, he is dead—stabbed with a knife in the back. But how could he have been stabbed, when it would have been impossible for anyone to enter that closet without being seen by the churchgoers?
Jud is immediately suspected of the crime. He had a public feud with Wicks, he was the only one in the pulpit, and they already didn’t like him. Enter Benoit Blanc, who believes in Jud’s innocence and sets out to find the true culprit.
Wake Up Dead Man is heavily inspired by Carr, and in fact The Hollow Man is explicitly referenced (and shilled!) several times during the runtime. It’s actually a bit funny, since the closet technically wasn’t locked… but, as I said before, given how simple the setup is, familiarity with the genre makes it quite easy to zero in on the method. The trick is not nearly innovative enough to throw off the scent of a well-seasoned mystery fan.
That being said, while I won’t spoil the later plot developments, Wake Up Dead Man follows through on religious theming in the crime, and if there’s one thing I’m a sucker for it’s themed impossible crimes. The mystery plot also felt much more intricate that either of the predecessor movies.
The cast, unfortunately, isn’t quite as engaging as Knives Out. Knives Out was able to tie everyone together with dysfunctional family dynamics, making everyone feel like they at least had a place even if they didn’t have plot relevance, while the Wake Up Dead Man cast is mostly random churchgoers. As a result, the characters who exist solely to pad out the suspect count, while hardly unique to the movie, stick out much more than usual.
Jud is a fun contrast to Benoit, eager to solve the case but operating on religious optimism while Benoit is a secular cynic. I also enjoyed Benoit’s dynamic with Geraldine Scott, the local police chief. A lot of times in mystery fiction, the police will mockingly disregard the private detective if they don’t believe in them and blindly follow them if they do. Scott trusts in Benoit’s powers, but, while Benoit is great detective here for the hunt, Scott is a no-nonsense investigator who just wants the case closed. (Scott is also the one who calls Benoit in, and it’s not really clear why; the case is only intriguing if you believe in Jud’s innocence, and Scott doesn’t seem to have any compelling reason to.)
Wake Up Dead Man drops the class commentary that was pervasive in Knives Out (and Glass Onion), although perhaps it makes up for that with observances on how religion can be used as a tool of bind and oppress others, by both malicious and well-intentioned (but misguided) actors. (The movie also explores how religion can be used to uplift and connect people so it doesn’t just arbitrarily demonize religion… but it does much more of the former than the latter.)
This movie is longer than the previous movies, and you can feel it. I think this movie does need a bit of extra room to breathe because of its multi-staged crime, but you can still feel the parts in the middle where it drags its feet a bit. Nothing as egregious as For Good, but not quite as airy as Defying Gravity.
As a movie, there are some clues that feel a bit hard to grasp because they’re only on screen for a few seconds, and a couple of weak plot points. Jud is initially suspected because he’s the only person in the pulpit and the first person who approached the body—but when it’s time to ratchet up the tension as the narrative shifts from act 2 to 3, this is suddenly treated as a massive revelation despite literally being the premise for the investigation up to that point. The culprit seems to switch from completely misunderstanding human nature to emotional hyperintelligence on a dime.
But it’s still a fun mystery! One element that I think Wake Up Dead Man really nailed was bringing the Golden Age atmosphere to modern times. The story takes place in a close-nit parish with an impossible crime. There are long stretches of runtime where it’s easy to forget that this isn’t an Agatha Christie adaptation until a character suddenly pulls out a smartphone. And this isn’t merely a Golden Age story brought into the present day, as modern technology and culture is woven into the narrative and plot.
The cinematography was good, with heavy use of light and darkness as a parallel to the conflict between virtue and vice referenced through the religious themes. Perhaps a bit on-the-nose, but still entertaining.
This also might just be recency bias, but I felt like Wake Up Dead Man had a higher density of jokes than the previous movies. These movies have never shied away from humor, but Wake Up Dead Man might almost be venturing into full mystery/comedy territory.
Wake Up Dead Man is fun, entertaining, and makes good use of its themes. Is it a particularly difficult or innovative mystery? No. But is it the best mystery Hollywood is making right now? Yes. So while more and better mystery movies would be the ideal, I can still be content with the Benoit Blanc movies we actually get.
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