Blink Twice Review

 

"Blink Twice” is one of those films that leaves you continuously questioning what’s happening and why. The intriguing blend of mystery and suspense keeps you hooked. I didn’t know much about the movie beforehand, even forgetting that it was both directed by and starred Zoe Kravitz.

The story begins with Frida, a nail artist with an animal theme and a cocktail waitress, working an exclusive event with her friend Jess. They encounter Slater King, a billionaire tech mogul with a controversial past, portrayed by Channing Tatum. After stepping down as CEO due to past indiscretions, Slater invites the duo to his private island. Upon arrival, his assistant Stacy, played by Gena Davis, collects their phones for privacy reasons.

On the island, they join a mix of Slater's business partners, a photographer, a private chef, a graduate, and a few other women. The guests are lavished with luxurious accommodations, gift bags, gourmet meals, and drinks. Initially, I thought this might be a cult-like scenario, but it quickly takes a turn as strong hallucinogenic drugs come into play.

As the days blend together, seemingly stretching longer than a weekend, I couldn’t help but wonder about the characters’ lives outside the island. Surprisingly, no one seemed concerned about returning to their regular jobs.

Jess, Frida’s bestie, starts noticing memory issues. She sees weird things like local workers sharing the same snake tattoo. Frida also has strange encounters with a maid who calls her "Red Rabbit," but Frida is too mesmerized by Slater to care. Suddenly, Jess disappears. The maid tricks Frida into drinking snake venom, causing her to recall fragmented memories. Her senses alert her to the fact that Jess is missing and no one else remembers her.

Sarah, one of the women, realizes her lighter is engraved with Jess’s name. This triggers Frida to search the compound, finding their phones in Slater’s room, though they are dead and out of service. Frida’s memories return, revealing that she and the other women have been sexually assaulted and had their memories wiped. She discovers Polaroids of different people with red gift bags. These bags contain a memory-wiping perfume made from an indigenous flower, which was also laced in the food. Frida convinces Sarah to take the snake venom as an antidote to the flower’s effects.

The women mix the foul-tasting venom into margaritas and share them, helping the others regain their memories. When the men return from their excursion, Frida and Sarah become increasingly paranoid, doing their best to convince the men that everything is fine.

Slowly, the other women regain their memories leading one of the ladies to stab one of the men. After this point, it’s all mayhem. A battle for freedom from the predators commences. There are a lot a deaths and mutilations. Frida is captured and learned that this was not her first time at the rodeo. She had been to the island in the prior year and ended up biting off Vic’s pinky finger before her memories were wiped. The maid recognized her by her red rabbit designer fingernails. At some point before this incident, she laced Slater’s vape with the perfume. As he took a hit from it, the effect of the drug makes him forget the previous events, he panics as he sees all the bodies and the two women escape. 

Now the twist. I’m going to say a year or two later, Frida approaches one of the men who assaulted her on the island. Slater is out of it and doesn’t now what planet he’s on but she and Slater are married and she is the CEO. She appears to keep him drugged up with his vape pen using the same drug he used to incapacitate the women. 

I can’t help but to see the parallels of this movie and Diddy-gate.  But instead of him using perfumes to keep people compliant, he use laced baby oil.  But that’s my two cents. Back to the movie review, this had everything you needed to keep your attention. I actually enjoyed it and think that you will to. I give this movie 3 out 5 acorns.