Good news for the holiday season: Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is back, with both hair and accent appropriately shaggy. Rian Johnson’s Southern-flavored detective, who solved wickedly clever crimes previously in “Knives Out” and “Glass Onion,” returns for “Wake Up Dead Man,” a thoughtful if slightly overlong take on a classic Agatha Christie-type mystery: Somebody, in an atmosphere with drama and tension swirling, steps alone into a windowless room, closes the door and within mere seconds is murdered. How is this possible, and whodunit? Well, as Benoit would say (and does, deliciously), “scooby-dooby-doo.”

It's a big part of the pleasure of the “Knives Out” franchise that Johnson thoroughly changes up the settings (and, except for Craig, the cast) each time. Here, we’re at a beautiful stone church — Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude — in a small upstate New York town. Young priest Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) has recently been sent to assist the charismatic but divisive Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), a leonine-haired firebrand who’s been described as “a few beads short of a full rosary.” The two men clash — the monsignor’s confessions to Jud are wildly if hilariously inappropriate — and suddenly, during a Good Friday mass with Jefferson’s most faithful flock present, one man is sent off to meet his maker unexpectedly, and another is suspected of the crime. Enter Benoit, in his trenchcoat and fedora and suit the color of aging mustard, confident he can figure out what really happened.

“Wake Up Dead Man” is less funny and more meditative than its predecessors: Father Jud, a man of quiet faith, inspires a certain introspection in Benoit, and the two men ponder questions of religion and mortality, which wasn’t really on my “Knives Out” bingo card but was often utterly engrossing, with the two actors finding a thoughtful chemistry. And the ensemble cast, as with all the movies in this series, is a pleasure, particularly Glenn Close as a devoted parishioner who has that Close way of seeming simultaneously serene and extremely creepy, Andrew Scott as a novelist who wryly and rather meta-ly observes of the drama that “the idiot versions of all of us will wind up on Netflix” (which, of course, is where this film will shortly reside) and Thomas Haden Church as a groundskeeper, whose big purr of a voice seems to be holding some secrets.

It's possible that this is the final “Knives Out” movie: Johnson’s Netflix deal ends with this installment, though he’s indicated an interest in doing more. But I hope this isn’t the last we see of that noble oddball Benoit Blanc, whose suavely sauntering presence is always a joy.

———

'WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY'

3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG-13 (for violent content, bloody images, strong language, some crude sexual material, and smoking)

Running time: 2:24

How to watch: Now in theaters; streaming on Netflix Dec. 12

———

© 2025 The Seattle Times. Visit www.seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.