One of 2025’s best thriller movies is available to watch now

The excellent mystery thriller is also coming to Netflix very soon.

Each entry in the mystery comedy thriller franchise sees the suave southern gentleman sleuth Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) investigating a different murder.

In the case of Wake Up Dead Man, Blanc is called to the scene of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, a church where a seemingly impossible fatal crime has just been committed.

The victim: the church's controversial monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin).

While Wicks' inflammatory rhetoric in the pulpit drove flocks away from the house of God, it also led to him attracting a small but devout following of emotionally damaged locals.

These include a washed-up author (Andrew Scott), an aspiring politician (Daryl McCormack), a concert pianist suffering from debilitating health problems (Cailee Spaeny), a recently divorced doctor (Jeremy Renner) and a tightly-wound lawyer (Kerry Washington).

When Wicks is discovered dead, this group - and the monsignor's loyal secretary (Glenn Close) - believe Rev. Jud Duplenticy (a wonderful Josh O'Connor, in a co-lead role) is responsible.

The reverend is an ex-boxer turned priest who had recently taken up a post at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude and publicly disagreed with the more senior priest's methods.

As such, Duplenticy finds himself investigating the killing alongside Blanc so that he can clear his name.

To our surprise and delight, JOE found Wake Up Dead Man to be a significant improvement on its predecessors, Knives Out and Glass Onion, movies that we already found very entertaining.

With the 2025 thriller, returning writer-director Rian Johnson crafts his best mystery yet.

While the previous Knives Out films were full of pleasures - including their great ensemble casts, timely themes and witty dialogue - we always argued that they weren't great whodunnits.

This was because Johnson's mystery storytelling often involved withholding so much vital information that it became virtually impossible for audiences to make a reasonable deduction as to who the killer was, something which is one of the greatest pleasures of the subgenre.

If you felt similar about Knives Out and particularly Glass Onion, we're happy to report that Wake Up Dead Man retains everything that worked about those movies while also boasting a proper whodunnit that is pleasingly complex and twisty and wraps up very satisfyingly.

In fact, we can't wait to rewatch the thriller when it is added to Netflix next month so that we can spot clues and foreshadowing we might have missed the first time around.

What also makes Johnson's latest mystery the best of its trilogy is its richer themes.

Knives Out explored class warfare and wealth inequality, while Glass Onion took aim at tech bros and influencers, topics that have been well-covered in lots of media.

Wake Up Dead Man, however, turns its attention to the more unique idea of faith, both in religious and secular terms.

As the central mystery plays out, it becomes clear that Johnson is making a grander point about what can happen to people when they are let down by the communities and institutions they had trusted, and how this betrayal and hurt can cause people to become susceptible to warped ideologies.

In Knives Out, Benoit Blanc famously remarked on the central murder: "It makes no damn sense. Compels me, though."

Wake Up Dead Man, however, is by far the franchise's most compelling entry yet.

Wake Up Dead Man is in Irish cinemas now. It will also be added to Netflix on 12 December.