Wake Up Dead Man brings some horror into the Knives Out series

Rian Johnson’s Knives Outmovies play great with a crowd. They’re crafted with the kind of attention to visual scheme and clever writing that rewards a big-screen experience. That said, they’re also an easy fit for Netflix’s stubbornly streaming-forward model — not because they look or act like TV movies (though television does have a rich whodunit history, as Johnson himself has tapped into with his Peacock series Poker Face) but because for so many people, murder mysteries are perfect cozy entertainment for a night on the couch. That’s still probably true of Wake Up Dead Man, the third installment in the series starring Daniel Craig as dryly eloquent Southern detective Benoit Blanc. But Johnson also challenges the coziness of his own creation by bringing some horror back into the subject of serial murders.