Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close kill it in freaky ‘Knives Out 3’

TORONTO — After a weak, “I don’t really care whodunit” chapter with “Glass Onion,” writer-director Rian Johnson’s knives have returned to razor-sharpness.

“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” had its world premiere Saturday night at the Toronto International Film Festival, and it’s the darkest, scariest and undoubtedly finest acted of the entire detective series.

“Knives Out” is always a good time. But generally speaking, the movies are zanier than they are engrossing or even mysterious. The resolution in No. 2 was, erm, a stretch. Then came this sneaky one — my surprise favorite of the Benoit Blanc trilogy.

And the flick, which hits theaters on Nov. 26 and Netflix on Dec. 12, might even boast the most laughs.

Impressive, considering how consistently spooky it is. After an Agatha Christie-style upper-crust puzzle and an influencer beach vacation gone wrong, Johnson has landed on the gothic shadows and deafening pulse of Edgar Allan Poe as his inspiration this time.

Quoth the Raven: Never better.

“Dead Man” comes fully alive from the moment Josh O’Connor’s Father Jud announces that he’s “young, dumb and full of Christ.”

Jud is pugnacious in the truest sense. He’s a former boxer turned priest, and his freewheeling fist gets him relocated to Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude in Upstate New York. It’s a Catholic church in the woods overseen by the cult-leader-like Monsignor Jefferson Micks (Josh Brolin).

Brolin’s pastor with stringy hair and a Grizzly Adams beard is all fire and brimstone; a bully on the pulpit who’s so fanatical he makes pre-Vatican II men of the cloth look like baby bunnies. He’s also a bit of a freak.

Wicks runs his foreboding and cruel house of worship in Chimney Rock, NY, which has the eerie small-town fog of “The X-Files” or “Twin Peaks.” And there’s an on-edge “Hot Fuzz” vibe that the sweet-as-apple-pie locals know much more than they’re letting on.

Especially Wicks’ flock of weirdos. 

Glenn Close, as staunch church employee Martha, channels Cloris Leachman in “Young Frankenstein” as she lurks around grim-faced and ghoulish, popping up out of nowhere. What an overachiever this actress is. She gives a feverish performance right up there with her Oscar-nominated triumphs. No one has ever been so full-bodied in a “Knives Out” film.

The other core culprits are the recovering alcoholic groundskeeper Samson (Thomas Haden Church); failed politician and YouTuber Cy (Daryl McCormack); his resentful adoptive mother Vera (Kerry Washington); A Ray Bradbury or perhaps L. Ron Hubbard type author named Lee (Andrew Scott); Drunken doctor Nat (Jeremy Renner); and cellist Simone (Cailee Spaeny). 

For their own individual reasons, they all have a cult-like devotion to Micks. And, unlike in overrated “Onion,” these actors fully inhabit their parts instead of winking at their own fame.  

To state the obvious, one of the names above gets murdered and one of the names above is the murderer.

No spoilers here. I don’t wanna wake up a dead man.

Our stained-glass window into their screwed-up world is Jud and the always fantastic O’Connor. 

For a guy best known for playing the future King of England, he’s turning into one of the most relatable everymen out there. The actor has a shelter-dog presence that we feel obligated to like and sympathize with — even if he might have blood on his paws.

The riveting road to the wrap-up gives you goosebumps all along. The Catholic imagery — crosses, confessionals, robes and rosaries — are used to optimal creep-out effect, just as horror genre has for decades.

“Wake Up Dead Man” builds to a solid and satisfying ending. You still couldn’t solve it on your own, but delightful clues abound. So do rapidfire gags, many of which come from dandy, deranged Daniel Craig as Blanc. A fleeting, hilarious reference to the musical “Cats” makes your abs hurt.

After “Glass Onion,” I was ready for “Knives Out” to go in the drawer.

Now, to hark back to Craig’s 007 days, let’s hope Benoit Blanc will return.