Blink Twice: A feminist horror that failed to escape its own traps

Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut, Blink Twice, was released earlier this year, sparking both praise and criticism. The psychological thriller follows nail artist and waitress, Frida (Naomi Ackie), and best friend Jess (Alia Shawkat), who are invited to billionaire, Slater King’s (Channing Tatum) private island for a lavish, euphoric, debaucherous getaway.

Alongside Slater’s friends, three other female guests are spoiled upon arrival with luxurious private rooms, perfume gifts, high-end meals, cocktails and hallucinogenic drugs. When Frida is tricked into drinking snake venom by a maid, she has flashbacks of inexplicable events originally wiped from her memory. Alarmed, and upon investigation, Frida discovers that the women have been drugged by an indigenous flower in their perfumes, causing memory loss. When Frida’s memory returns, she tricks the other women into drinking the snake venom antidote and discovers that the men have been sexually assaulting them every night, then wiping their memories. The film reveals that Slater has been regularly gifting bags of the drugged perfume to friends and business partners, whilst inviting them annually to his island to rape his female guests. However, Frida gets revenge. The final sequence of the film shows her married to a drugged, complicit Slater, as the CEO of his company, while she continues to drug his vape.

Blink Twice’s unique storytelling and visually striking style showcase her fresh perspective and skilful direction, making it a compelling and highly praised film in its genre.

 

Due to Blink Twice’s sexually violent nature, I read online reviews before watching the film; the internet, as usual, was drastically split in its opinions of the directing, plot, characters, and overall message. In her directional debut, Kravitz has most certainly made a statement. Blink Twice’s unique storytelling and visually striking style showcase her fresh perspective and skilful direction, making it a compelling and highly praised film in its genre. Kravitz described the writing and directing process, and the film itself as “a combination of my own experiences and experiences of friends and family, other women that I’m close to, and not really having a place to put those frustrations and complicated feelings.” The cast is definitely talented, with their convincing portrayal of dark humour, fear and severe confusion, which drives the film and its tension. Although, this is as far as I would go to praise Blink Twice.

This inevitability in films contributes heavily to rape culture and dangerously desensitises very real, daily experiences.

 

Despite the film having the intention of coming across as a feminist revolution which exposes the dangers to women, and the power dynamics between gender, race and class, its plot twist felt unnecessarily graphic, disturbing and hypocritical. Sexual violence is no stranger to our screens; the inevitability of violence towards women has haunted the horror and thriller genres since cinema’s creation. A woman stranded in a haunted forest, alone in an abandoned house, kidnapped and held against her will, being stalked by a monstrous villain, or in this case, travelling to a mystery island with little communication to the outside world, are all common horror tropes we will continue to see. The inevitable ending is violence towards said woman in a sexual form. This inevitability in films contributes heavily to rape culture and dangerously desensitises very real, daily experiences. The grand plot twist of our female characters being drugged and raped is hardly fantasy – it happens every day, and not at the hands of a monstrous villain, but rather via people that walk among us.

The film felt somewhat disrespectful and insensitive to victims of abuse as it implied that the women were only attacked since they blindly trusted men, who are presented as generally awful.

 

A heavy, yet incredibly frustrating message within the film is the protagonists’ deep regret and realisation of having blindly trusted the mysterious billionaire. Although sexual violence often happens in scenarios of blind trust, women are usually given a strong false sense of security and do not get into dangerous situations rashly. We are conditioned to not walk home alone at night, to walk on a certain side of the road to spot cars trying to stalk us, carry alarms, dress ‘appropriately’, cover our drinks and keep our location on. I truly do not believe that the women in Blink Twice, or in any film or real-life scenario, are ever to blame for any form of violence against them. Women can be entirely sober, aware of their surroundings, and still suffer in situations like this. Therefore, the film felt somewhat disrespectful and insensitive to victims of abuse as it implied that the women were only attacked since they blindly trusted men, who are presented as generally awful.

Push a narrative, where the only extraordinary thing that can happen to a woman in a horror film is to be raped

 

I would not necessarily say this film is worth your time, but it was not an absolute drag. Credit where credit is due: Zoe Kravitz has made a remarkable directional debut and I am sure she will produce many great future works. Blink Twice, however, was a feminist revolution with a flat tyre. In my opinion, sexual violence is hardly ever justified on our screens, let alone using it to objectify women that only exist to push a narrative, where the only extraordinary thing that can happen to a woman in a horror film is to be raped.