From Massachusetts mansions to Greek islands and a cursed English church, track down every Benoit Blanc crime scene from the Knives Out trilogy.
Three films. Three mysteries. One legendary detective. Benoit Blanc, Daniel Craig‘s charming sleuth with the syrup-thick Southern drawl, has a knack for walking into absolute chaos.
He’s crashed a filthy-rich family’s inheritance bloodbath, peeled back layers of tech-bro stupidity on a private island, and wrestled with faith in a gothic church.
With Rian Johnson‘s brilliant Knives Out trilogy complete, it’s time to sleuth out where all the murder, mayhem, and donut-hole metaphors actually happened.
The production secrets alone – like a real family living inside the murder mansion or an island that bans cars – are almost as twisty as the plots.
Table of Contents
🔪 Knives Out Filming Locations Decoded
Here’s the obsessive’s guide to every key filming location, complete with trivia that’ll make you the smartest person at your next watch party.
🏰 Knives Out (2019) – The New England Gothic
The Thrombey family’s decaying dynasty needed a location dripping with old-money secrets.
Johnson wanted a “living board game” atmosphere, so he hunted for a house that hadn’t been ruined by modern renovations. What he found was better than fiction: a real family living inside the murder mansion.
Plot: When mystery novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead, a detective questions his eccentric, backstabbing family who each have a motive – and a knife to sharpen.
Cast: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, and Christopher Plummer.
The “single” Thrombey house is actually three completely different locations stitched together: the exterior (Hill Hurst Mansion), the interior (Ames Mansion), and a custom-built soundstage hallway with a trick window that couldn’t reflect the crew.
The real-life family who owned Ames Mansion actually lived inside it during production. They hung out with the cast off-camera and solved puzzles with Jamie Lee Curtis. That exact library was previously used in the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot.
Where was it filmed:
- Ames Mansion, Borderland State Park, Sharon, MA: All interior Thrombey mansion scenes.
- Hill Hurst Mansion, Hunnewell Estates, Natick, MA: Gothic-revival establishing exterior shots.
- Downtown Maynard & Marlborough, MA: High-speed car chase and medical examiner’s office fire.
- West Street Tavern, Berlin, MA: The restaurant bar at 263 West Street where Ransom Drysdale meets Marta Cabrera (formerly Flat Penny Bar & Grill).
- Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden: Local diner interior and driving establishing shots.
Music trivia:Â
Named after Radiohead’s 2001 track from Amnesiac with graphic lyrics about cannibalism – “a dead body being chopped up and served to a waiting room of people.”
The metaphor slams home: the Thrombey family tries to metaphorically “cannibalize” Harlan’s estate the moment he dies, with knives out for his kind-hearted nurse, Marta.
🏝️ Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) – The Greek Island Farce
From Clue to cruise wear. Johnson swapped the dark mansion for a sun-drenched tech-bro nightmare that’s way more fun than it has any right to be. The production was so luxurious that the cast called it “a summer vacation where we also made a movie.”
Plot: During lockdown, a billionaire invites his “best friends” to a murder mystery party on his private Greek island. Blanc crashes the party, and everything explodes (sometimes literally – those glass art pieces were real and fragile).
Cast: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Jessica Henwick, and Madelyn Cline.
The sweeping “island” compound is actually the ultra-exclusive Amanzoe Resort Villa 20 on mainland Greece – clever camera angles and careful cropping sold the illusion of isolation. The cast and their families stayed at the resort during the month-long shoot.
Over on Spetses Island, the crew faced a unique logistical nightmare: the island bans private automobiles. Everything moved by foot or horse-drawn carriage, requiring careful coordination of camera equipment around the historic harbor.
All indoor atrium scenes – including the massive, fragile glass art pieces that get spectacularly smashed during the climax – were fully fabricated inside Belgrade soundstages in Serbia. Those glass shards were real. The prop department made multiple duplicates for the big destruction take.
Where was it filmed:
- Amanzoe Resort Villa 20, Porto Heli, Greece: Miles Bron’s “Pisceshite Island” compound exteriors.
- Port of Dapia, Spetses Island, Greece: Opening pier sequence where guests wait for the yacht.
- Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden: Additional interior transitional shots.
- Belgrade, Serbia soundstages: All internal Glass Onion atrium scenes & NYC flashbacks.
Music trivia:
The Beatles wrote “Glass Onion” specifically to mock over-analytical fans who looked for hidden conspiracies in their lyrics. John Lennon said a glass onion is something transparent but with multiple layers that fool you into looking for non-existent depth.
Perfect fit for a mystery where Blanc overcomplicates a solution that was always stupidly obvious – Miles Bron is just an idiot.
⛪ Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025) – The English Gothic
The darkest entry sends Blanc to a crumbling upstate New York church community. But the production stayed firmly on the other side of the Atlantic, turning English forests and churches into a fictional river valley town called Chimney Rock.
Plot: A priest is murdered inside a locked church, forcing Blanc to confront faith, desperation, and a town full of secrets.
Cast: Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Cailee Spaeny, Mila Kunis, Andrew Scott, Daryl McCormack, and Kerry Washington.
On the final day of location shooting at Holy Innocents Church (High Beach Church), Rian Johnson invited the real-life church warden into the director’s booth.
He revealed that she (the warden) had officially met the movie’s killer after unknowingly serving him tea, and dared her to guess who it was – then made her wait 18 months to find out.
Mila Kunis, who played a suspect, famously confused the vicar for an extra and launched into a series of jokes before realizing her mistake. The church reportedly funded a major renovation from the location fee.
The local pub “Il Diavolo” was built entirely on a London soundstage but packed with Easter eggs, including a custom painting of a devilish Vincent van Gogh with one of his horns cut off.
Visual effects crews digitally pasted the fictional church steeple and pub facade onto footage shot at Cold Spring, NY.
The production designer modeled the Wicks mausoleum after a historic Egyptian-revival tomb located in Detroit. Winterfold Forest was originally planted as a geometrically aligned tree farm, which created an unsettling “perspective shift” on camera that Johnson loved for the film’s gothic tone.
Where was it filmed:
- Holy Innocents Church, High Beech, Essex, UK: “Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude” church scenes.
- Winterfold Forest, Surrey, UK: Wicks mausoleum, groundskeeper’s cottage & Vera Draven’s estate.
- Various London streets: Establishing shots digitally blended with Cold Spring, NY footage.
- Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden: Il Diavolo pub interior & transitional driving shots.
Music trivia:
U2’s Wake Up Dead Man from their 1997 album Pop is a bleak, desperate prayer to a silent God – “a party that ends at a funeral,” as Bono described the album.
The title holds a double meaning: literally a murdered priest and staged resurrection, thematically Blanc grappling with faith, spiritual emptiness, and what happens when cynical structures collapse.
🤫 The Cameos You Definitely Missed (& The Ones in All Three)
So, who has cameos in all three Knives Out movies? Spotting these faces is the real mystery within the mystery.
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt (All movies): Voices a different character in each film – fictional TV detective “Hardrock” in the first, the hourly “dong” sound on the island in the second, and a sports announcer in the third.
- Noah Segan (All movies): Plays a physically distinct role in each – Trooper Wagner (the Hamilton fan) in the first, island stoner Derol in the second, and goateed pizzeria owner Nikolai in the third.
- Ricky Jay (All movies): The late magician/actor gets a hidden portrait tribute in every film, most notably as a vintage poster inside the Il Diavolo bar (he was originally written into the first film before his passing).
- Stephen Sondheim (Glass Onion): Plays himself in the Zoom poker group, playing Among Us with Blanc in his bathtub; this marked his final on-screen appearance.
- Angela Lansbury (Glass Onion): Plays herself in the Zoom poker group, also marking her final on-screen appearance; the film is officially dedicated to her and Sondheim.
- Natasha Lyonne (Glass Onion): Plays herself in the Zoom poker group, joining Blanc‘s bathtub gaming session.
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Glass Onion): Plays himself in the Zoom poker group, the NBA Hall of Famer and author.
- Hugh Grant (Glass Onion): Appears briefly as Phillip, Benoit Blanc‘s domestic partner, holding a jar of pandemic sourdough starter.
- Ethan Hawke (Glass Onion): Appears uncredited as the “Efficient Man” on the Greek dock, wearing a linen suit and spraying mystery “pandemic-neutralizing spray” into guests’ mouths.
- Serena Williams (Glass Onion): Plays herself on a virtual fitness screen, then breaks the fourth wall to reveal she’s on an expensive live Zoom call.
- Yo-Yo Ma (Glass Onion): Plays himself at Birdie Jay‘s pandemic house party, casually helping solve a musical puzzle box by identifying a Bach composition.
- Jake Tapper (Glass Onion): The CNN anchor briefly anchors a real-time news broadcast on a television screen.
- Jared Leto (Glass Onion): Likeness cameo only; characters constantly drink his fictional “Red Planet Kombucha.”
- Jeremy Renner (Glass Onion): Likeness cameo only; his hyper-spicy small-batch hot sauce appears as a major plot point.
- Jeremy Renner (Wake Up Dead Man): Appears physically as Dr. Nat Sharp, brilliantly rewarding his Glass Onion hot sauce joke.
- Jeffrey Wright (Wake Up Dead Man): Appears in a sharp opening cameo as Bishop Langstrom, who reprimands Josh O’Connor‘s character.
đź“‹Â Knives Out Trilogy FAQs
Let’s solve these mysteries like Blanc would – methodically and with a touch of theatricality.
What is the Knives Out trilogy?
The Knives Out trilogy is a series of three murder mystery films written and directed by Rian Johnson, all starring Daniel Craig as the eccentric detective Benoit Blanc. Each is a standalone whodunit with its own cast, setting, and complete mystery.
Knives Out movies in order?
- Knives Out (2019)
- Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
- Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)
Where is the Knives Out house located?
The “Thrombey mansion” is three locations stitched together: exterior at Hill Hurst Mansion in Natick, MA; interior at Ames Mansion in Borderland State Park, Sharon, MA; and a custom-built hallway on a Boston soundstage. The real family lived in the Ames Mansion during filming.
What is the Glass Onion house?
Miles Bron’s villa is Villa 20 at the Amanzoe Resort in Porto Heli, Greece (mainland, not an actual island). The cast stayed there during the month-long shoot. You can book a stay there.
Is Wake Up Dead Man actually filmed in Chimney Rock?
No. “Chimney Rock, NY” is a fictional town. The movie was filmed entirely in England. Visual effects crews later digitally pasted the fictional church steeple onto footage shot at the real Cold Spring, NY.
Are the movies based on true stories or a book?
No. All three films are original works by Rian Johnson. The characters, locations, and mysteries are entirely fictional – though Johnson has admitted that some family dynamics in the first film were “eerie close” to things he’d witnessed.
📺 Where to Watch the Knives Out Movies
Streaming availability changes faster than a Blanc plot twist, but here’s your current cheat sheet.
- Knives Out (2019) is available on Amazon Prime (stream and DVD).
- Glass Onion &Â Wake Up Dead Man are exclusively available on Netflix .
Donut hole theory not included. But seriously, go rewatch all three. You’ll catch something new every time – like that Ricky Jay portrait hiding in the background. 🔪
Disclaimer: This fan-created article is provided for entertainment purposes only. We don’t guarantee the accuracy of any of these facts and don’t recommend making important life decisions based on them. All referenced titles, names, and related intellectual property are the property of their respective owners, and no copyright infringement is intended.
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