Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve’s Forgotten Twisty ‘Who’ll-Do-It’ Black Comedy Is The Perfect Watch For ‘Knives Out’ Fans
We’ve still got over a month till Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery releases in theaters (and then another few weeks till it’s officially available on Netflix), and we’re all waiting rather impatiently for this next installment. With its stunning cast—including Josh O’Conner, Glenn Close, Andrew Scott, Kerry Washington, and Jeremy Renner—it’s promising to bring us all the charm and fun of the first two films.
While we wait, we can certainly rewatch the first two films (and we absolutely should!), but if that’s not enough to fill the void of hilarious who-dunnits, there is one vastly forgotten “who’ll-do-it” film that has nearly all the same charm while being just as off-the-wall: a 1982 comedy-thrilled called Deathtrap.
Deathtrap is also full of familiar faces, including the beloved Michael Caine, the late Christopher Reeve, and scream queen Dyan Cannon. While it doesn’t have a bumbling detective as its main character, it does follow plenty of questionable characters that will have you laughing at their audacity.
Caine plays Sidney Bruhl, a playwright who’s famous for his murder mysteries but who seems to be past his prime. After a series of flops, he grows jealous when his student Clifford (played by Christopher Reeve) sends him a promising manuscript to critique—and finds Clifford’s work so compelling that he decides that it might just be worth killing Clifford off so he can market the play as his own.
The play’s title? You guessed it: Deathtrap.
This twisty mystery will keep you on your toes, especially if you go in blindly (and you should!)—just when you think you know what the story is about, the movie flips the script and you realize you’re watching something else entirely. What more could you ask for in a Spooky Season watch, anyway?
The film, directed by Sidney Lumet of 12 Angry Men and Murder On The Orient Express fame, seems to have gone forgotten over time, which is a shame. But it’s also a blessing in disguise, because it’s likely you haven’t heard anything about this movie yet, which means no one can spoil the fun—and you really might not see the end coming.
