How ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ Composer Used a Broken Harmonium to Create a Feeling of Dread

For the next installment in the "Knives Out" series, "Wake Up Dead Man," director Rian Johnson instructed composer Nathan Johnson to create a score with a much darker, gothic tone, heavily influenced by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Daniel Craig reprises his role as the eccentric detective Benoit Blanc, who must investigate the killing of a Monsignor, a part played by Josh Brolin, inside a close religious community.

The ensemble of suspects is notably star-studded. Josh O’Connor features as the local priest, Jud Duplenticy, who is investigated along with other members of the parish. These include the devout Martha Delacroix, portrayed by Glenn Close, groundskeeper Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church), attorney Vera Draven (Kerry Washington) and her politically ambitious husband Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack). Also among the suspects are the town’s doctor, Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny), and author Lee Ross, played by Andrew Scott.

Rian Johnson, the filmmaker known for subverting genre expectations in movies such as "Looper" and "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," is once again pushing the franchise into new territory. The film will first have a limited two-week theatrical engagement beginning November 26, before its worldwide streaming debut on Netflix starting December 12. This dual-release model, increasingly common for mid-budget productions, is designed to generate strong audience buzz prior to reaching the streaming service’s vast global viewership. The strategy reflects a broader industry trend of using exclusive theatrical windows to build momentum.

Series composer Nathan Johnson continued his practice of completely redesigning the music for each film. He detected a constant feeling of "underlying dread" in the story, which he sought to express musically from the very beginning. To produce a raw, unnerving quality similar to "nails on a chalkboard," he directed the string players to scrape their bows harshly across the strings. This textural decision is part of a broader approach that favors conceptual ideas over giving each character a conventional, hummable theme.

A central motif involves a grating, scratchy noise evolving into a pristine, clear sound—a sonic metaphor for what Johnson terms "the jewel of Eve's apple that they’re tracing through the whole movie." For example, Martha’s character is represented not by a melody but by the lonely, expressive sound of a solo violin. This idea culminates in "The Confession" cue, which the composer imagined as a miniature violin concerto. He characterizes it as "a delicate single voice, but it can move between great drama and intimate quietness. At the same time, it’s strong enough to convince an entire congregation to follow it." According to musicologist Dr. Elena Vance, using a solitary, compelling instrumental voice to symbolize persuasive, almost hypnotic authority is a time-honored and potent method in film composition.

Although the final recording was completed at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London, the score’s unique sound was initially developed in a very different environment: a centuries-old stone cathedral. It was there that Johnson first recorded textural experiments with a quartet and explored a range of unusual sounds. He gathered six bass clarinets to use the percussive clicks of their keys as a central rhythmic element. He also located a partly broken harmonium, recording its strained creaks and wheezes and then slowing the audio down dramatically. This eerie soundscape was specifically designed for Josh Brolin’s character, Monsignor Wick. Johnson explains the director’s vision: "Rian described Wick as being like Captain Ahab from Moby Dick, raving at the ocean with a leviathan hiding below. When I recorded this, it feels like the wood is creaking and ropes are pulling across old timbers. It’s not something you would pick out, but you feel this creaky dread that something is coming."