Blink Twice Review – A Tense Nightmare Vacation

A thriller can fall apart if it’s paced too slowly, and more importantly, if the ending doesn’t deliver a narrative that justifies the build-up. Blink Twice has quite a slow start, but thankfully after setting up some small building blocks, the final act kicks the narrative up a notch, making it a fun watch. Directed by Zoë Kravitz (The Batman) in her directorial debut, Blink Twice is a thriller that follows two women who travel to a billionaire’s island, and slowly realize that there’s something off about their impromptu vacation. It was also written by Kravitz, who co-wrote the film with E.T. Feigenbaum (High Fidelity). 

Naomi Ackie (Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker) and Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development) star as Frida and Jess, respectively. They are the two women who travel to the island owned by billionaire tech mogul, Slater King, as played by Channing Tatum (Magic Mike). It also stars Christian Slater (Mr. Robot), Adria Arjona (Hit Man), Simon Rex (Scary Movie 3), and Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense). Frida, obsessed with King, orchestrates a meeting with him at a gala his foundation holds. Smitten, King invites her and Jess to his private island, whose only inhabitants are his friends, other women, and weird maintenance staff. 

Blink Twice Climbs a Steep Hill

On the surface, Blink Twice is a fairly by-the-numbers thriller. It starts as a bleak surface-level examination of class disparity, as Frida and Jess work their hospitality jobs, living in an apartment filled with black mold. The film picks up a little by the time they get to the island, with some solid meet-cute energy between Ackie and Tatum. While Blink Twice takes a while to get moving, once we launch into Frida as a paranoid gaslit unreliable narrator the film stays interesting and delivers a tense, suspenseful final act. 

While we won’t spoil the island’s mystery (cue Lost theme), watching it unravel is a great time and it devolves into some horrific scenes that are quite impactful. The film is well-edited, brutally cutting between glimpses of scenes as Frida struggles with her situation. Ackie’s performance is good and by the time you realize the situation she’s in, you really root for her character. She pulls off the character’s conflicted motivations well, and I’d watch a whole other movie with her and Shawkat as friends. They’re very entertaining together, and without their natural banter, the film’s first section would be utterly boring. 

Channing Tatum gives a decent performance as King, although it’s way too obvious that he’s the film’s villain. He does swing for the fences in the last 10 minutes, and unfortunately, he doesn’t quite land, taking away from some of his more nuanced scenes. Arjona is fantastic, playing the jealous mean girl, Sarah. She manages to be instantly unlikable in the first half before her vulnerability opens her up. The rest of the cast is fairly one-note, although Slater does nail the delivery of a few lines towards the end.

A Well-Crafted Mystery

Blink Twice’s setting and plot are fairly similar to some other movies but the story is fresh. From the moment Frida arrives at the island she’s making jokes about how maybe going to a private island with people she didn’t know wasn’t the best idea. The ending is well-foreshadowed, and not in a way that makes the circumstances of the twists and turns clear. Instead, those twists and turns are fun to see because the jigsaw pieces fall into place once the characters gain that information. The plot is engaging, and even though the final moments devolve into wish fulfillment, the ending is great.

The cinematography can be a little off-kilter at times. The frantic nature of the editing creates a nice meaningful effect, but some of the frames are noticeably dull. On the other hand, the sound design is phenomenal, and coalesces well with the editing work to drive home the tension in the film’s final act to the point that a few audio cues caused me to shudder. The score by Chanda Dancy (I Wanna Dance With Somebody) adds to that tension, but it also helps build the island’s mystery in the film’s first half. 

While tonal consistency is usually integral to a film’s success, Blink Twice is a good thriller because you have fun with the characters before it gets dark. The dialogue is snappy and natural, resulting in some fun banter, particularly between the women in the cast. The turn isn’t sudden – the banter becomes sporadic – but the scale of the island’s mystery is so far removed from the more comedic sections that the tonal mismatch makes you empathize with Frida much more quickly. 

Run, Run Away

Blink Twice has some pacing issues, and some scenes don’t look great, but it has a gripping narrative and a wildly dark turn. There’s a good 30-minute chunk of the film when it had my complete, undivided attention because I was utterly invested in the well-developed characters. Blink Twice is a very good thriller, with strong performances, and it will keep you engaged in the narrative despite a slow start. If you like thrillers you should go to the theater to watch this one, otherwise, you can wait until it comes to digital services.

You can see Blink Twice in theaters now.