Wake Up Dead Man

The best description I can give of Wake Up Dead Man is that it’s Knives Out with a better mystery and worse cast. That doesn’t mean it’s likely to fool anyone well-versed in the genre, but it’s another fun movie bringing alive an original Golden Age-style mystery with Hollywood magic.

Knives Out

Harlan Thrombey, patriarch of the Thrombey family, is dead. The police have concluded his death was a suicide, but gentleman detective Benoit Blanc has been hired to investigate the possibility of foul play. This crime(?) is not wanting for suspects, as on the night of the incident the entire family had gathered at Harlan's semi-secluded mansion for his birthday, and Harlan conveniently gave pretty much every family member some sort of motive over the course of the party. And if the cozy mystery set-up wasn't obvious enough, Harlan had amassed his fortune through detective novels.