Channing Tatum’s Extremely R-Rated Thriller Is Unfairly Overlooked Island Party Bloodbath

By Robert Scucci
| Published 12 seconds ago

You know how the subtext of every single conversation we have is that a bunch of billionaires gather in remote locations to commit horrible crimes against humanity as if they’re simply playing a game with human lives? By now, we’ve seen the emails, the court documents, and enough leaked files to know these things happen, and to our horror, the world keeps spinning because most of us can only be revolutionaries until the rent is due.

2024’s Blink Twice, a psychological thriller written and directed by Zoe Kravitz and led by Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie, whisks viewers away to one of those remote places, where women are unknowingly rounded up as prisoners, only coming to their senses after a series of traumatic incidents force them to confront the reality of their situation.

Having never heard of this one because of its limited theatrical run before being relegated to on-demand purchases, I finally had a chance to sit down with it now that it’s streaming free on Tubi, complete with an opening trigger warning. And why is there a trigger warning, you ask? Because this movie is absolutely batsh*t insane.

Seriously, it takes a lot to make me upset while watching a movie, and Blink Twice certainly delivers on that front. To the film’s credit, it’s not shocking for the sake of being shocking, and its willingness to go all in on criticizing how the ruling elite treat ordinary people makes for an enthralling watch that’s not only going to keep you up at night, but also make you wonder what we can do as a society to dismantle the power structures that allow the ultra-wealthy to operate this way.

A Series Of Unfortunate, Horrifying Events

Blink Twice offers a visceral experience that’s best experienced firsthand. There’s no real way to break down the plot without revealing major spoilers, so beyond the setup, it’s probably best to either use your imagination or simply fire up the film and give it a go.

We’re introduced to Frida (Naomi Ackie), a nail artist and waitress who works corporate events attended by some of the world’s swankiest public figures and financiers. She has a run-in with vaguely disgraced tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum), who invites her and her best friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) to a gathering at his exclusive private island. They take him up on his offer and are showered with gifts, the finest food and drink money can buy, drugs, and sex.

The problem, however, is that Slater’s assistant Stacy (Geena Davis) confiscates everybody’s phones, every woman is suffering from memory lapses, and once the fog from the drugs and opulent overstimulation finally wears off, a feeling of fear begins to consume the collective consciousness.

Everybody within Slater’s inner orbit, like Vic (Christian Slater), Cody (Simon Rex), Tom (Haley Joel Osment), and Lucas (Levon Hawke), acts suspiciously about what they’re getting into during the nights when memories become imperfect, while the other women guests, Sarah (Adria Arjona), Camilla (Liz Caribel), and Heather (Trew Mullen), grow increasingly apprehensive of one another as alliances form, loyalties are questioned, and Jess voices her suspicions to deaf ears.

A High-Concept Brainwashing Catastrophe

Slater King’s alleged paradise is basically Epstein Island without explicitly saying it’s Epstein Island. It’s a place where people of influence, washed-up child actors, reality TV stars, and social climbers can get together and act as uninhibited as they damn well please. They have the resources and privacy to do whatever they want while operating above the law.

The women lured to this island are manipulated at the highest level. They know something is wrong. They know they’re witnessing crimes against humanity and even crimes against their own well-being, but they’re so charmed by everything Slater and his entourage have to offer that they don’t want to give up the lavish lifestyle they’re quickly becoming accustomed to. Once the charm wears off and they catch wise, however, they’re still fed an unthinkable amount of illicit substances to keep their rational minds at bay.

It doesn’t matter that the perfume is administered strategically as if it’s something more than just perfume, that nobody ever wakes up remembering what happened the previous night, or that certain members of the group share the exact same snake tattoo. The private island is a free meal ticket, and to most of the people unwittingly trapped there, the trade-off seems fair, even as their mental and physical autonomy is constantly compromised in increasingly invasive ways.

Blink Twice offers a horrifying glimpse at what can happen when morally reprehensible people with seemingly infinite resources get to treat the world like a playground while the average person watches helplessly from the sidelines. It’s one of those movies that will make you wish similar behavior doesn’t actually happen behind closed doors in real life.

But after all of the impropriety, carnage, and brutal lessons learned, it somehow gets the last laugh with an ending so far out of left field that you can’t help but give your TV a standing ovation.

As of this writing, Blink Twice is streaming free on Tubi. It’s a wild ride, but one worth the cost of admission.