Blink Twice -- a review

Actress Zoë Kravitz, the daughter of musician/actor Lenny Kravitz, is best known for her roles in films like Mad Max Fury Road, Rough Night, and as a very memorable Catwoman in The Batman (she was superb in that film). She made her directorial debut (as well as co-written the script and co-produced) with Blink Twice (Amazon/MGM), a psychological thriller about a cocktail waitress named Frida (Naomi Ackie) who’s busy working an exclusive event with her friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) when the guy who’s running it, billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) invites them to party with him on his private island for a few days.

Of course, the women take him up on his offer, looking forward to treating themselves to a wonderful vacation on a tropical island. However, Frida quickly notices some strange things happening, like one of the maids, who keeps laughingly referring to her as “red rabbit.” Jess also realizes that she’s suffering from memory lapses. But most of this is passed off as being a side affect of the potent hallucinogens, aka party favors, that have all been provided freely by their host. But shortly after being bitten by a snake, Frida begins to experience some true terror.

Blink Twice is a bit predictable. Of course there’s going to be something ominously wrong once they reach the island; that’s practically telegraphed from the beginning. But Kravitz still does a good job at keeping the story moving. And Naomi Ackie is superb in making her Frida very sympathetic to the point where you care about what happens to her. Christian Slater (Heathers), Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense), Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks), and Gina Davis (A League of Their Own) round out the strong supporting cast of King’s lackeys who are all along for the party (and the conspiracy).

And even when Frida discovers the dark truth and begins fighting for her life, Kravitz still manages to keep all of this extremely gripping, creating loads of suspense within every shot that leaves the viewer wondering what will happen next. All of this leads up to a surprising, but immensely satisfying, twist at the end. Blink Twice tries to make some salient points about class warfare, but it really works much better when it sticks to being a stylish, black-hearted thriller that ultimately shows that everybody is just trying to survive in the hard-hearted jungle. --SF

Blink Twice is rated R, and has a trigger warning for scenes of sexual assault and hard violence. It's available on streaming, as well as on physical media.

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