“Blink Twice”: An Important and Thought-Provoking Film, You Can Watch and Forget | Review

Horror films have always been used for social, or even political, criticism: from the first silent films that criticized (implicitly and subtly, within the limits of censorship) phenomena such as the rise of Nazism in Germany, through zombie films that corresponded, for example, with the nuclear threat, to films that correspond with contemporary politics, such as black-white relations or the feminist movement “MeToo,” which fights sexual harassment and assault against women. I am not a big fan of these films for the simple reason that most of them tend to discuss power relations too simplistic – for example, whites are evil and blacks are the victims, or men are violent while women are victims – and some of them push their message in a way that is anything but subtle.

In this respect, my expectations for “Blink Twice” – Zoë Kravitz Kravitz’s directorial debut – were relatively low. Even if I tried to avoid the trailer or the discussions surrounding the film, I quickly realized that it was going to deal with male exploitation of women and power relations to the point of sexual crime. Nevertheless, I tried to approach it as a “blank slate” and almost without cynicism to see if it would surprise me and go beyond the relatively meager discussion of the social issues of Woke culture. After a little more than an intense hour and a half, with impressive work by Kravitz, excellent acting by most of the cast but a predictable and slightly flawed script, I left with a lot of questions. You are welcome to read the full review and understand why.

What Is Blink Twice About?

“Blink Twice” is the kind of film you should know as little about before you go watch it. First, because the trailer reveals essential parts of the plot, as in many other cases. In addition, prior knowledge of the main themes and plot can direct the viewer to a specific path, which mostly happens. To the film’s criticism, it reveals too many cards early on, sometimes at the expense of creating suspense and mystery. Quite unusual, even the trigger warning at the film’s beginning is a spoiler. I don’t remember seeing this in many films, even super violent horror films.

But still, here are some things you should know about the film before you step in. The protagonist is a black girl named Frida (Naomi Ackie), a cocktail waitress and nail artist (umm…). One day she is scrolling through her Instagram and comes across a video in which billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) apologizes for something he did – at this point, you can probably guess what exactly it is – that caused him to lower his profile, hand over the management to someone else and more or less retire to a private island, where he holds parties.

Frida invites herself to a gala where she meets Slater, who complimented her on her nails at the same event the previous year. After a few magical and platonic hours, he invites her, her friend Jess (Alia Shawkat), and other great-looking young women to spend time with him and a group of his relative men on a secluded private island without phones because they are useless in horror movies.

Here, the viewer and probably everyone on the plane would start to get suspicious. But we’re in a horror thriller, after all. The group of girls discovers the good life of parties, fine food, alcohol, and, of course, drugs. It seems too good to be true, and it probably is. At some point, strange things start happening on the island. An old lady points at Frida and calls her “red rabbit,” a perfume made from flowers on the island or some snake thing. The turning point comes when something happens to one of the girls. Then suddenly, the suspicion arises that something strange is happening on this island, perhaps related to sexual assaults and other terrible acts appearing in the trigger warning.

Here is the trailer for “Blink Twice,” which you can skip if you want to avoid some major spoilers:

On the surface, there are many spoilers here. In “Blink Twice,” it’s a bit more complex. The original name of the film is “Pussy Island,” a name that wasn’t chosen in the end, but it allows us to learn a little about the central themes of the film. Its plot structure is also far from being too sophisticated in this aspect, with a few clever tricks here and there. Unlike films like “Abigail,” I’m not sure the main problem here is that the film’s marketing and PR campaign revealed too much, even if it does, but rather that within the film’s inner world, it progresses in a somewhat predictable but messy manner.

The film is reminiscent in more ways than one of several shocking cases that have made headlines in recent years, such as the Jeffrey Epstein affair (who was accused, among other things, of trafficking minors before taking his own life in a detention cell) or the horrific acts attributed to Bill Cosby, Puff Daddy, and others. Some of the harsh scenes that will appear in the second part of the film are more than a trigger warning, even considering terror in our world, like the awful acts of Hamas against Israeli citizens, including women and children, on October 7 and while they were hostages, or horrific videos, we have seen from the battlefields of Russia and Ukraine. There was mainly one continuous shot of about a minute that shocked me. The film presents a lot of violence in its second part, some standard and some less routine.

Great Movie Making, But The Plot Has Flaws

You can see that Kravitz is influenced by several cinematic texts, for better or worse. The most obvious reference is Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” which, as we recall, won an Oscar for the original screenplay and which dealt with power struggles between blacks and whites, or more precisely, slavery. Although the situation of a black guy who first meets his white girlfriend’s parents differs from that of girls who meet a wealthy billionaire and a group of men on a private island, the film’s structure and themes are pretty reminiscent.

Of course, you can compare “Get Out” and the hypnosis scenes to the “blink if you’re in trouble” that recurs several times in “Blink Twice” and is also related to the motif of photography, appearing in the film many times (and also in the poster). There are influences here from other horror films from recent years, such as Ari Aster’s excellent “Midsommar” or “The Menu,” which took the class war to the restaurant scene, or the disappointing “Fantasy Island,” which presented a story about an island that allows all fantasies to come true, with a hefty price.

Most of the time, Kravitz takes the script and these influences in positive directions. The film looks great with some unconventional shots, the compositions are interesting, there is a creative use of colors (predominantly white and primary colors), and the sound work is primarily interesting. Kravitz’s original choices indicate a “musical sense” – well, you remember who her father is – which sometimes creates an interesting and ironic contrast with what we see on the screen. You can see a clear expression of this in that continuous and brutal shot I mentioned earlier, which is probably the scene I will take with me from this film.

Something Happens In The Island, But What?

The bigger problem is that the script is far from tight. I’m not saying that every movie about a desert island should be supernatural (like “Lost”) or present a mystery in which everyone is a suspect (“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”), but there is room for improvement and a little more interest here. The film suffers from an uneven pace; it is too slow in the first part. As we get closer to solving the mystery, we discover that except for one or two twists, most of it is predictable, which reduces the tension and causes the film to not progress in the direction it could have. There are intriguing clues here, some of which you can see only upon re-watching, but the direction they take us is not interesting or surprising enough. To paraphrase the film’s title, you can blink more than once or twice during it.

I found some big holes and points of illogicality in the plot: it’s difficult to understand the rules of the world that the film builds concerning the questions it deals with, such as the fact the girls can’t remember many things, and it seems a bit random. Sometimes it feels like Kravitz and her co-writer chose the universal, topical, or symbolic meaning of the scenes instead of what is happening in the film’s inner world.

Without revealing too much beyond the power relations between men and women, the horrific violence, and thoughts of revenge, there is a somewhat deeper discussion here about regret, repression, post-trauma, the gap between dream and reality, and more. Like many other films that present a similar narrative – for example, “The Invitation,” which we already wrote about on the site – there were too many topics that the film dealt with, which created a load. Because if the “MeToo” aspects and the gender gaps that are very visible in it weren’t enough, Kravitz decided to add a few points about economic class differences, the relationship between blacks and whites, instant culture, excessive consumption in a generation that lives on the “here and now,” and probably a few more topics that I can’t remember right now because the film was too full of them.

This discussion remains mainly on a theoretical level because, from a plot perspective, the explanations are not convincing enough, so I allowed myself to “fill in the gaps” and think several times during the film about associations that the film took me to. It may sound strange and bordering on “Mansplaining,” but I think the film’s dealing with such serious issues could have been a little more subtle, at least on an emotional level. Some profound moments here are almost under the radar or mentioned in passing, seemingly as part of the film’s narrative structure.

Decent Cast, With A Few Shining Stars

The truth is, I was pleasantly surprised by Zoë Kravitz’s directing work, and I recognized a lot of talent in her. The daughter of Lenny Kravitz and singer Lisa Bonet has been in Hollywood since she was about 18, first as an actress. We saw her in the somewhat lackluster “X-Men: First Class,” in the three “Divergent” trilogy films (or whatever this book/film series with Shailene Woodley is called, which includes “Divergent,” “The Divergent Series: Insurgent,” and “The Divergent Series: Allegiant”), in two “Fantastic Beasts” films, in “Mad Max” (as one of Joe’s wives, speaking of sexual violence and torture against women) and also as “Catwoman” in Batman. Her filmography is not bad, as are her performances in most films, but it’s hard to say that Kravitz is one of the shining stars of actresses of the current generation of Hollywood.

The work on the script for “Blick Twice,” together with E.T. Feigenbaum, began about seven years ago. Over time, she decided that she also wanted to direct the film. During those years, she also started a relationship with Channing Tatum and decided to cast him, with her only behind the camera. The result shows that she has the necessary combination of skills and connections. As a first step, she managed to recruit a very talented cast here. In the role of the villain – seemingly or not – the gifted and somehow underrated Channing Tatum, who also happens to be her fiancé, does a great job.

Naomi Ackie, as mentioned, got the leading role. This name may not tell you much, but this is a talented actress, who won a BAFTA for her role in the TV series “The End of the Fucking World” and a lot of praise for her performance as Whitney Houston in the biopic about the music legend, “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody.” She is also dark-skinned, which probably matters in “Blink Twice”.

The cast also includes the stunning and very talented Puerto Rican actress Adria Arjona (who has had significant roles in films like “Pacific Rim: Uprising,” “Morbius,” and the surprising “Hitman”), Simon Rex (who we remember for several comedic roles in recent decades, such as in the three “Scary Movie” films), Haley Joel Osment (no longer just “That Kid from The Sixth Sense”), Christian Slater (“Mr. Robot,” “Interview with the Vampire,” “True Romance”), and even Oscar winner Geena Davis (“The Accidental Tourist,” “Thelma and Louise”, and “Beetlejuice”). It’s a great starting point, with most of the cast doing an excellent job. The problem is that some actors here don’t have much to work with, which is a shame. Ackie does her best, even if her character lacks some emotional depth that would contribute to the viewer’s identification with her.

Adria Arjon stole most of the show (again) as a reality star who is initially jealous of Frida but undergoes an inevitable change following plot developments and manages to combine humor. In my opinion, among the rising actresses of Latin cinema, she is undoubtedly one of the standouts. I really hope to see her in more horror films.

Should You Watch Blink Twice?

Ultimately, “Blink Twice” is an essential and thought-provoking film with a beautiful cast, some brilliance in the level of cinematic work, several scenes that leave an imprint, and a very relevant message to our time. On the negative side, it is also a bit messy, does not meet the standards of a thriller, and includes a lack of uniformity, for example, in its pace or in the fact that it changes genres too much.

It will be fascinating to follow Zoë Kravitz’s subsequent works and see if we get a new interesting name in the horror world or another young actress who successfully makes the transition to the world of directing (after Greta Gerwig, Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick, and others). Either way, I’ll be there to see it, hoping her next film will make me not blink from tension or fear.

Blink Twice – Frequently Asked Questions

When was the Blink Twice released? The release date of “Blink Twice” to theaters in the United States is August 23, 2024. The film was shown a few weeks earlier at the DGA Theater.

Who Directed Blink Twice? Actress Zoë Kravitz directed the film in her directorial debut.

Who wrote Blink Twicr? Zoë Kravitz wrote the script for the movie with E.T. Feigenbaum.

Who Played in Blink Twice? The cast of “Blink Twice” includes Naomi Ackie in the leading role, alongside Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Adria Arjona, Simon Rex, Haley Joel Osment, Kyle MacLachlan, Geena Davis, and Alia Shawkat.

How long is the Blink Twice movie? the duration of the film is 102 minutes.

When was the movie produced? In the United States

What was the budget of the film? The budget of “Blink Twice” is about 20 million dollars.

How much did the movie gross? “Blink Twice” grossed approximately 40 million dollars, according to Box Office Mojo.

What is the MPAA rating (Parent guide) of Blink Twice? The film is rated R16 for brutal violence, cruelty, rape, drug use, and offensive language

What do The Reviews Say About Blink Twice? The film got mostly positive reviews. It has a 6.5 rating on IMDB and only 75% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

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