Rian Johnson Revives Film Franchising With Wake Up Dead Man

Franchising: the writing on the wall for any IP. There’s a reason Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale have kept the rights to Back To The Future under lock and key, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire warning its ‘80s alumni of the chains it forged in the afterlife. Yet Rian Johnson, previous helmsman of Star Wars’ most polarising entry, has managed to emerge after Mademe Webb seemed to herald the end of creativity in mainstream cinema and establish a creative, mainstream franchise: Knives Out.

His whodunnit completes a hat-trick of continually surprising 12A thrills held fast by tentpole components, the centre being Daniel Craig’s Detective Benoit Blanc. Craig drives Johnson’s cinematic puzzle boxes as the only piece always on the Knives Out board. Obviously, Johnson is cribbing from a well-thumbed recipe, but Angela Lansbury’s cameo in Glass Onion is starry enough a wink to prove that Johnson is fab, not fraud. Nevertheless, Knives Out possesses a renegade quality, standing up to the Marvel-glutted cinematic ouroboros endlessly ending fans and consuming IP. Wake Up Dead Man is a (re)birth, reintroducing viewers to the reliable, episodic and pliable cinematic property.

While the previous entries leaned on the lighter side, Johnson has gone gothic with Wake Up Dead Man. As expected, the cast is stacked. Heading the rogues gallery, Gen-Z heartthrob Josh O’Connor as Fr. Jud, a boxer-cum-clergyman Hot Fuzz-ed to the parish of a Josh Brolin’s Trumpish Montsignior Wicks. He regales a flock of black sheep with virile sermons, with Glenn Close, Andrew Scott and Jeremy Renner amongst those gleefully lending an ear. After an impossible murder rocks the pews, all eyes are on Father Jud as outsider and suspect No. 1. Enter Benoit Blanc to untangle the twistiest mystery yet.

While Glass Onion boasted an Aegean tan, Wake Up Dead Man is doused in mist, set against arching, non-secular architecture, perfect for casting shadows for foul play and not a mile away from the New England gothic notes in the first instalment. It isn’t all doom and gloom, as Knives Out is always more about fun than fear. Johnson’s wordplay makes this clearest. It’s incredibly indulgent, swinging and skipping through similes while holding a wink for the audience. One near-Socratic dialectic between Blanc and Jud about religion operates like a linguistic Rube Goldberg machine. Such extravagance may grind some gears, but who wants whodunnit-lite? The stickiest ends require the stickiest prose.

Many of the performances are also more humorous than spooky. Craig is having a ball with Blanc’s southern draw, now complemented by a rugged makeover, while Close is using every opportunity to scream at the top of her lungs. Some get left by the wayside, particularly Scott and Cailee Spaeny, two hot topics which should be in the shop window. While it is a shame to see them shrink, this speaks to what makes Wake Up Dead Man exciting, namely, as the entry which looks to shake up the previously established formula.

Differently to the first two films, O’Connor really drives the plot. Ana de Armas and Janelle Monae have both previously taken protagonist roles, the former really taking up lots of screentime alongside Blanc. However, Armas’ Marta was always at the whims of the mystery, while in Wake Up Dead Man, O’Connor takes the driving wheel. It’s bold and feels slightly discomforting not following Blanc like a willful puppy, but seeing a franchise take off its stabilisers, no matter the inevitable bumps, is a refreshing enough excuse.

Johnson has stated that the appeal of Knives Out is that it is like taking a new novel off the shelf every time–the only thing that stays the same is Blanc. He has even railed against the “A Knives Out Mystery” subtitle glued onto the end of his follow-ups. The dexterity of Knives Out so far is enough to demonstrate that Johnson has the reins and will jerk them as he pleases. Look to the darker elements in Wake Up Dead Man, such as Brolin’s truly savage take on Trump or a properly grisly death that comes just as the tensions reach their apex. These darker strokes are Johnson cashing in on his earlier successes, taking risky bounties which a captive audience is willing to adapt to.

The death knells rung by the franchise fodder plaguing cinema screens have been ringing since the MCU picked up steam. A change has long been overdue, one that values innovation and originality, and with the waning noise surrounding Disney’s superhero behemoths, despite box office success, audiences have demonstrated a hunger for this change. Johnson’s gambit will prove that the time for this change is now, following on from Ryan Coogler’s original IP barnstormer Sinners. It is an incredibly tough time for creatives to forge new ideas rather than rely on timeworn properties, as veteran show runner Vince Gilligan recently stated, but Johnson’s new, innovative entry could forecast a change in the weather.

What Johnson is doing is not new, but it feels that way due to the over-saturation of spaghetti-universe franchises, which can’t help but string out word salad rather than planting a full stop. Wake Up Dead Man isn’t a revelatory work of art. It’s entertainment, pure and simple. The special sauce is in the timing, coming at the end of the franchise’s adolescence when Johnson has a track record long enough to begin toying with the format. The third entry in a series is typically victim to middle-child syndrome, and Wake Up Dead Man will surely carry this legacy with its darker tones. But this should be celebrated as an achievement in creativity within boundaries, making something which is simple, reliable and adaptable to countless audiences.

Wake Up Dead Man premiered at this year’s London Film Festival. See it in selected cinemas from 26th November.