Blink Twice

Blink Twice
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Zoë Kravitz
Written by	Zoë Kravitz E.T. Feigenbaum
Produced by	Bruce Cohen Tiffany Persons Garret Levitz Zoë Kravitz Channing Tatum
Starring	Naomi Ackie Channing Tatum Christian Slater Simon Rex Adria Arjona Kyle MacLachlan Haley Joel Osment Geena Davis Alia Shawkat
Cinematography	Adam Newport-Berra
Edited by	Kathryn J. Schubert
Music by	Chanda Dancy
Production companies	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Free Association This Is Important Bold Choices
Distributed by	Amazon MGM Studios Distribution (United States) Warner Bros. Pictures (International)
Release dates	August 8, 2024 (2024-08-08) (DGA Theater) August 23, 2024 (2024-08-23) (United States)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million
Box office	$2.9 million

Blink Twice is a 2024 American psychological thriller film directed by Zoë Kravitz, in her directorial debut, from a script she co-wrote with E.T. Feigenbaum. The film stars Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Kyle MacLachlan, Geena Davis, and Alia Shawkat.

Blink Twice premiered at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles on August 8, 2024, and was released in the United States on August 23, 2024 by Amazon MGM Studios Distribution through the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer banner. The film received generally positive reviews from critics.

Plot

Frida is an animal-themed nail artist and cocktail waitress who works an exclusive event with her roommate, and best friend, Jess. Among the guests at the event is billionaire tech mogul, Slater King, who has recently stepped down as CEO amid a public apology for bad behavior in the past. As a surprise for Jess, Frida smuggled in two dresses so the pair could explore the event as guests. After she trips and falls, Slater helps Frida up and after they quickly strike up a friendship, he invites her and Jess to join him and his friends to vacation at his private island. Arriving at the island, Slater's assistant, Stacy, confiscates the group's phones. Attending the island with them are Slater's friends and business partners, photographer Vic, private chef Cody, DJ Tom, and graduate Lucas, as well as three female guests; Sarah, Camilla, and Heather. The girls are treated with lavish rooms, gift bags of perfume, and a luxurious, carefree holiday experience, enhanced by high-end meals and cocktails delivered by Cody, and potent hallucinogenic drugs supplied by Vic.

Frida clashes with Sarah over Slater's affections while Jess notices lapses in her memory. Frida also notices that the local workers on Slater's island all sport the same snake tattoo on their forearms. Slater explains that the workers are culling wild snakes which have multiplied on the island. Frida also has strange encounters with one of the maids, who seems to recognize Frida and calls her "Red Rabbit".

Rich, Slater's therapist, visits the island briefly, and Frida recognises him from the earlier cocktail gala, where Rich jokingly told her to "blink twice if you're in danger." Slater gives Rich a gift in a red bag. During a night of partying and drugs, Jess is bitten by a snake. Jess, now seemingly spooked, confesses to Frida she wants to leave the island but Frida brushes off her concerns. The next day, Jess goes missing but none of the group seems to notice. At breakfast, Frida notices that Lucas smells like the perfume the girls are given. While the men are away on a fishing trip, Frida discovers a room where there are dozens of identical red gift bags. She is tricked into drinking the snake's venom by the maid she has been encountering and begins remembering strange events. She also notices that Jess is missing, although the rest of the girls do not. When checking out Jess's room, she finds it being used as a storage room with no evidence of Jess until she sees the other girls passing around Jess's lighter. Alarmed, Frida investigates and realizes that a flower, also indigenous to the island, is capable of wiping memories and has been inside the food and perfume gifted to them. Frida manages to convince Sarah of what is happening and gets her to drink the venom, which acts as an antidote to the flower's effects.

The men return from fishing as Frida and Sarah grow more paranoid that something terrible has happened to them that they can't remember. The pair tricks Camilla, Heather, and Stacy into drinking shots of the snake venom mixed with tequila to restore their memories. Frida sneaks into Slater's office to retrieve their phones, only to find they are out of power and service. As she hides from Slater, Frida's full memories return, revealing the men have been sexually assaulting the women every night and then wiping their memories using the flower. When Jess's memories wouldn't wipe due to the snake venom, they killed her. She also discovers polaroids featuring different women and men with red gift bags, revealing that King is inviting male guests to the island to rape women on a regular basis. He also gives those men perfume to use when they are away from the island.

At dinner, Frida and Sarah attempt to buy time for themselves by dancing. Camilla and Heather's memories return, leading Camilla into killing Tom, and Heather badly injuring Vic before being shot dead by Stan, Slater's security guard. The men take refuge in Slater's villa where Slater chastises Lucas for not wanting to partake in the abuse of the young women, instead choosing to be inactively complicit by doing absolutely nothing. Slater himself kills Camilla, and Stacy attacks Frida, revealing herself to prefer being part of the men's plan, before Frida stabs her to death. Frida and Sarah manage to kill Stan, Cody, and Lucas, before Slater traps Frida in the villa.

It is revealed that Frida was invited to the island a year prior and experienced the same events, biting off Vic's pinky finger and scarring her head when she fell and smashed it against a rock before her memories were wiped. The maid had recognized Frida from her fingernails, which were painted with red rabbits. Slater laughs off his recent apology and states that forgetting is better than forgiveness, before leaving to retrieve Sarah. While Slater is gone, Frida laces his vape with the flower. As Slater prepares to kill Sarah, the vape's effects start, making him forget the previous events and causing him to panic upon seeing the bodies. Slater slips and knocks himself unconscious as the villa catches fire. Frida and Sarah escape, leaving Vic to die but Frida saves Slater.

Some time later, at the same exclusive event, Rich, who also assaulted Frida on the island, encounters Slater who is noticably more disoriented. It is revealed that Frida has now married Slater and assumed his position as CEO, all while drugging his vape with the flower to keep him compliant. As the event's guests congratulate Frida, Rich is apprehended.

Cast

• Naomi Ackie as Frida
• Channing Tatum as Slater King
• Alia Shawkat as Jess
• Christian Slater as Vic
• Simon Rex as Cody
• Adria Arjona as Sarah
• Haley Joel Osment as Tom
• Liz Caribel as Camilla
• Levon Hawke as Lucas
• Trew Mullen as Heather
• Geena Davis as Stacy
• Kyle MacLachlan as Rich
• Cris Costa as Stan
• María Elena Olivares as Badass Maid
• Saul Williams as Emcee
• Tiffany Persons as Interviewer
• Aaron Himelstein as Manager

Production

Zoë Kravitz started writing Blink Twice under the working title Pussy Island in 2017. In June 2021, Kravitz revealed her plans to make her directorial debut with the film, the script of which she co-wrote with E.T. Feigenbaum. Channing Tatum signed on to star and, at the Cannes Film Market, MGM won the distribution rights as Naomi Ackie was cast as Frida, the film's lead role. The rest of the cast was announced from May to June 2022, with Jordan Harkins and Stacy Perskie joining the film as executive producers.

Filming began on June 23, 2022, with production occurring in Yucatán and Quintana Roo, Mexico. In January 2024, the film's title was changed from Pussy Island to Blink Twice; Kravitz explained that issues formed with the Motion Picture Association (MPA) "not wanting to put it on a poster, or a billboard, or a kiosk; movie theaters not wanting to put it on a ticket" but also mentioned, "Interestingly enough, after researching it, women were offended by the word, and women seeing the title were saying, 'I don't want to see that movie,' which is part of the reason I wanted to try and use the word, which is trying to reclaim the word, and not make it something that we're so uncomfortable using. But we're not there yet. And I think that's something I have the responsibility as a filmmaker to listen to."

Release

Blink Twice premiered at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles on August 8, 2024 and it was released in the United States by Amazon MGM Studios on August 22, 2024, with Warner Bros. Pictures releasing the film internationally on August 21, 2024. On August 21, Amazon issued a trigger warning for the film on Twitter for "mature themes and depictions of violence — including sexual violence", which Variety noted was rare for a studio to do but part of a growing trend in Hollywood beyond MPA ratings. The warning is attached before theatrical screenings.

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada, Blink Twice was released alongside The Crow and The Forge, and is projected to gross $7–8 million from 3,067 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $2.9 million on its first day, including $820,000 from Thursday night previews.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 79% of 145 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "A bold and memorable debut that thrusts Zoë Kravitz into the turf of directors to watch, Blink Twice is a live wire of a film." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave the film an overall positive score of 74% (including an average of 3 out of 5 stars), with 50% saying they would definitely recommend it.

External links

• Blink Twice at IMDb