Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

Father Jud Duplenticy, a former boxer, is transferred to an upstate New York parish run by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks. On Good Friday, Wicks is found dead in the church with a knife in his back, in a room locked from the inside. Jud, who had threatened him, becomes the prime suspect. The police call in detective Benoit Blanc, who believes he is innocent. The two investigate the parishioners, an old priest's inheritance and a secret that seems supernatural. The mood is darker and the setting far plainer than the previous film's island.

1. ReferenceWhere the title comes from

   The title Wake Up Dead Man comes from a phrase in the folk song Ain't No More Cane on the Brazos. Johnson says it's also "kind of" derived from U2's song of the same name.

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2. ReferenceThe Hollow Man

   John Dickson Carr's novel The Hollow Man (1935) is referenced repeatedly in the film. Johnson also named Edgar Allan Poe and Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None as influences.

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3. Behind the scenesThe church idea

   Johnson first shared the idea of setting the film in a church with Daniel Craig after a screening of Glass Onion at the BFI London Film Festival. He wanted a plain setting after the previous film's luxury.

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