Zoe Kravitz’s Debut is Perfect Slow Burn Horror

Blink Twice - Zoë Kravitz - 2024

★★★★★--Perfect slow burn horror. Saw people saying the pacing was off because of this. I disagree. 

Brilliant flick. Favorite horror movie of the year, so far. Was not expecting a banger from first-time director Zoe Kravitz. Not at all what I expected in general. The trailer is some great misdirection. Got me into the theater and then pulled the rug out. This is part of what makes the film so great, IMO. 

Gist is a cocktail waitress is invited to a tech billionaire’s private island, only to uncover dark and terrifying secrets. That is all you need to know going in. 

 

Stars Naomi Ackie in the lead. Recognize her from her television work in The End of the F***ing World andMaster of None. Also played Whitney Houston in the biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody. Rest of the cast includes Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, former MTV VJ Simon Rex, Adria Arjona from that Richard Linklater movie Hit Man, Kyle MacLachlan, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, and Alia Shawkat. Great cast of characters that all work phenomenally together. You love the women in this movie, especially the leads, Ackie and Arjona. Go in with just the trailer and you’ll love it. The trigger warning is real, as this movie is super disturbing. There is one scene where a woman is screaming in this horrific, visceral way. 

 

Light spoilers ahead. The ladies are controlled by a perfume made from the flowers that only grows on the island that causes them to forget. Literal snake oil causes them to snap out of it. Inspired by the Lotus Eater’s myth from the Odyssey where people live on a small island and consume lotus plants that cause them to live in a perpetual state of bliss. Their lifestyle causes them to lose all sense of urgency and forget where they came from or how long they’ve been on the island.

 

Forgetting our trauma is a gift. It can be, sure, but you often need that shit to be who you are in the end. 

 

This was the best horror debut I can think of since Jordan Peele dropped that flick in 2017. Love a chick revenge movie. All the women in this are bad ass. Geena Davis is like a Get Out character. She sort of represents an older generation who didn’t get the memo that “women should look out for each other instead of competing.” 

Search Party

★★★★★- Wow. What an insane show. I felt it kept getting better and peaked with Cole Escola. Then the last season was way too much with a BA-NAN-As ending. I loved it. Also, a great contemporary New York City show, like Broad City.

The overall gist... is sort of impossible to explain. Focusing on the first season, Dory Sief (Alia Shawkat), whose life is in a rut, throws herself into trying to find an acquaintance from college who has gone missing. Her horrible friends--weeny boyfriend Drew Gardner (John Reynolds [whom people say I look like but I don't see]), flamboyant serial liar Elliott Goss (John Early, sort of a millennial that guy), and vapid actress (Meredith Hagner)--rightly think she is losing it. This ultimately leads to the literal end of the world. The missing girl, who, spoiler, shows back up, one Chantal Witherbottom (Clare McNulty), is hilariously dumb. 

The second season focuses on trying to cover up various deaths they have caused while the third season is a trial for one of those deaths. Louis Anderson hilariously plays the defense attorney in this season. He's great. 

The fourth season is where shit veers hard with Chip Wreck, a psychoticaly obsessed man played by Cole Escola, kidnapping and brainwashing Dory. Susan Sarandon shows up in this season as an insane presence in Chip's life. She's perfect. 

The last season is where shit goes to crazytown. Dory is a cult leader funded by a Big Tech Pharma company. Her disciples are the aforementioned friends and a group of social media influencer brought together by their patron, a billionaire tech mogulTunnel Quinn played by Jeff Goldblum. Dory and the team are attempting to achieve transcendental enlightenment through a pill. It is a complete disaster. 

Couldn't recommend it more. The first couple of episodes were meh. If you get through those, it really pays off. It shan't disappoint. Five stars.