Wake Up Dead Man: Christian Review & Analysis
- Kevin Keating
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
It’s not often that I venture outside the realm of Bible adaptation and review a “mainstream” film. Still, when I was offered the opportunity to screen Rian Johnson’s latest “Knives Out” mystery, Wake Up Dead Man, I couldn’t resist the temptation. I’ve been a fan of Johnson’s stylized mysteries since I came across Brick back in high school, and so I was interested to see how he would approach a story centered around a priest, his church, spiritual abuse, and the Gospel story.
Of course, Wake Up Dead Man isn’t the first mystery story to feature a priest as the primary protagonist. GK Chesterton pioneered the ecclesiastical mystery sub-genre over a century ago with his Father Brown books. Since then, clergy and churches have become staples, particularly in stories interested in exploring guilt, confession, and the secrets that can lurk within tight-knit, rural communities. But what makes Johnson’s new church mystery unique is that he explores many of these familiar tropes in the context of Trump-era cultural and political dynamics.
What is Wake Up Dead Man About? (Summary)
Wake Up Dead Man follows a young priest, Father Jud (Josh O'Connor) who is sent to serve in a small, struggling church under the leadership of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), a charismatic but abusive narcissist. Wick's devoted core group of parishioners include the church's administrator, Martha (Glenn Close), the groundskeeper, Samson (Thomas Haden Church), a local lawyer (Kerry Washington), her aspiring politician/influencer son, Cy (Daryl McCormack), the local doctor (Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), a struggling writer (Andrew Scott), and a former cellist (Cailee Spaeny). After Jud is accused of a seemingly impossible murder, he joins forces with renowned detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) to clear his name and uncover the dark secrets at the heart of the church.
Review & Analysis of Wake Up Dead Man
Before I dig in to my analysis of the film, consider this your SPOILER WARNING. I won’t go into a lot of detail, but I will allude to elements of Wake Up Dead Man’s plot, including twists and the ultimate conclusion of the film, because these details are relevant to the film’s portrayal of churches, Christianity, and the dynamics of spiritual abuse.
The political messaging of Wake Up Dead Man – especially its barely-veiled criticism of Trump and the GOP – will occupy much of the discourse surrounding the film, both among fans and critics. I’m not interested in engaging with the politics of the film or sharing my own views. But be warned: if you’re a person who gets triggered by such topics, this may not be the movie for you. Still, if you either are open to the political messaging or can at least put up with it, the film has more to offer in its exploration of dynamics in the contemporary church.
As someone who served for several years in a church with a senior pastor who was eventually removed from office for abusing his power, the dynamics at play in Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude (the church in the film) felt very familiar. There’s the combative but charismatic leader, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks. There’s the core group of vulnerable church members, to whom he offers a sense of identity, purpose, and hope. And then there’s the narrative: God has called our church (and more specifically, its pastor) to play a special role in pushing back the secular culture. Under the influence of that narrative, we see well-meaning men and women justify or turn a blind eye to all kinds of abuses and manipulation, convinced that doing so is necessary for the greater good. Like most churches under spiritually abusive leadership, the parishioners of Our Lady aren’t bad people – they have just slowly convinced themselves that the importance of Wicks’ mission outweighs the indecency of his conduct. It doesn’t help that Monsignor Wicks is able to manipulate and abuse each parishioner's unique vulnerabilities in order to keep them in line. The dynamics involved feel far more nuanced and authentic than Netflix’s last major foray into spiritual abuse, Midnight Mass.
What’s even more unique about Wake Up Dead Man is the solution that it offers in response to problems in the church. In Midnight Mass, the heroic characters respond to spiritual abuse by abandoning Christianity in favor of doubt, autonomy, and agnostic monism. That’s often the message that secular films offer: modern abuses are presented as symptoms of innate flaws in Christianity and the church, which are therefore condemned and rejected. Wake Up Dead Man offers a very different message. This isn’t a story about how heroic it is to abandon Christianity. It’s a story about how heroic it is to cling to Jesus’ teachings on confession, forgiveness, compassion, and sacrificial love, even in the face of abuse and betrayal within the church. At the start of the film, Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude is a church that has literally forsaken the cross of Christ in order to perpetuate shame and judgment. By the end, Christ and the cross have been restored to their proper place in the church – both literally and symbolically.
That's not to say that all the heroes in the film are all people of faith. Benoit Blanc, the uber-detective at the heart of the Knives Out series, is presented as a hardened atheist, who dismisses biblical stories as illogical, misogynistic, and homophobic with rants that sound like something straight out of The God Delusion. And it wouldn’t surprise me if many of those involved in the film share Blanc’s views about Christian morality and the biblical stories. Even so, it isn’t the atheist Blanc who wins over our Christian hero, Father Jud. Rather, it is Jud who leads Blanc to a “Damascus Moment.” That moment doesn’t result in a complete change in Blanc’s metaphysical views. At the end of the film, he still dismissively rejects an invitation to attend worship. But Blanc’s experience does help him appreciate that there are things even he can learn from Christians like Jud. Given how much Blanc feels like a New Atheist, I couldn’t help but see a connection between his shifting attitude and the growing respect that even figures like Dawkins have shown toward Christianity in recent years.
There's one other dimension of Wake Up Dead Man that's interesting to me as a critic of biblical adaptations. As the title suggests, the mystery at the heart of the film is a kind of perverse re-enactment of the Gospel narrative. Wicks is killed on Good Friday, after being betrayed by one of his closest followers. He is then buried in a tomb and appears to be resurrected and to break out of the tomb on Easter Sunday, before disappearing. All of this is orchestrated in hopes of giving the struggling community an inspiring narrative to rally behind. But I don't take any of this as a dig at the Gospel itself. Rather, the superficial similarities ultimately highlight the much greater differences between Wicks and Jesus. Wicks is presented as a false Messiah, an anti-Christ, who rejects all that Jesus stood for (truthfulness, forgiveness, compassion for the lost, turning the other cheek, self-control, rejecting worldly power, etc.). Whereas Christ willingly died and rose again to bring salvation and forgiveness to his people, Wicks’ goal is to increase his own power and wealth by crushing his people with shame and judgment. Eventually, Wicks’ “resurrection” is exposed, but that doesn’t end the church or ruin the faith of its members. Rather, it clears the way for the return of the true Christ to his proper place, ruling over the church from the cross.
I haven't said much about the actual mystery and plot of Wake Up Dead Man. Honestly, I found it less interesting than the film’s exploration of social dynamics in the church and slightly less engaging and suspenseful than the previous Knives Out installments. It had some twists and turns, but none of them were as surprising as those in the previous films. There still plenty of humor and great performances. O’Connor sells Jud’s earnestness and Craig is captivating as always. All that’s to say, it’s a fun watch, but I could see hardcore mystery buffs not being quite as impressed.
Wake Up Dead Man offers an engaging exploration of the dynamics of spiritual abuse and corruption that have plagued many churches, while at the same time showing how Christian compassion, confession, and forgiveness have the power to bring healing and renewal. This isn’t a film that is trying to tear down the church; it’s a warning against the dangers of abusive leaders and a call for the church to not lose sight of Christ, its true leader. As far as I’m concerned, that’s not a bad message for a mainstream Netflix film.
As I noted above, I don’t usually venture outside of Bible adaptations, but I’m curious to see how many of you who are regular readers would be interested in more reviews of “mainstream” films, with a special focus on how they portray the church, Christianity, the Bible, God, etc. Let me know your thoughts below!
