“Blink Twice” and the Horror of the Female Experience

Zoe Kravitz’s directorial debut, “Blink Twice,” opens up with a trigger warning.

“Blink Twice is a psychological thriller about the abuse of power. While this is a fictionalized movie, it contains mature themes and depictions of violence- including sexual violence. This may be upsetting or triggering for some viewers.”

While some see trigger warnings for films as spoilers, the content of “Blink Twice” certainly demanded it. The warning hardly prepared me for the heavy experience I would endure.  I came for the film’s Black female lead, Channing Tatum, and rich-people-shenanigans, but stayed to watch how the brutal twist was going to unfold.

It follows Frida (Naomi Aki), a young woman who works as a cocktail waitress. At a fundraising event, Frida and her friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) meet tech billionaire Slater King, played by the charismatic Channing Tatum. Slater is charming and insanely wealthy. He flirts with Frida all night and invites both women to vacation on his private island with his posse of friends: new CEO Vic, child actor Tom, private chef Cody, and tech protege Lucas. Three other women accompany them: Sarah, Camilla, and Heather.

Frida and the ladies’ time on the island is an ongoing cycle of wearing identical white outfits, lounging by the pool, drinking champagne, eating delicious food, and taking potent hallucinogenic drugs. But as time goes by, things become unsettling.

The film’s twist was unexpected, a “blink twice and you’ll miss it” moment. On the island, Slater gifts Frida flowers called Desideria on multiple occasions and puts in the ladies’ perfume. These flowers wipe the ladies’ memories, so they don’t remember anything from the night before. 

One night, a snake bites Jess, and the venom allows her to remember the past night’s events. She begs Frida to leave, but Frida maintains that Jess is just paranoid. The next day, a maid who calls Frida “red rabbit” tricks her into drinking snake venom. She remembers Frida from visiting the island a year ago and wearing nails with red rabbits painted on them. The following day, Frida notices that Jess is missing. When no one remembers who Jess is, she freaks out. Sarah, who has Jess’ cigarette lighter, believes Frida that something weird is going on. They drink the snake venom together, and traumatic memories start coming back in droves.

Kravitz’s big reveal is that every night, the men sexually assault the women. In the middle of an assault, Slater kills Jess because she retains her memories. These brief flashback scenes are intense, leaving nothing to the imagination. These are tough to watch but remind us of the real trauma some women have endured. 

It’s all about power.

Kravitz describes the film in Entertainment Weekly as “a collection of being a woman in the world and seeing the way that things work, and seeing the way that these power dynamics play out on all different levels.”

The stories of Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein preceded and likely inspired the story. However, the recent arrest of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs makes this film even more timely and haunting.

On September 16, Combs was arrested and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution. The indictment accuses him of “arranging freaks offs,” where he forced women to have sex with sex workers to the point of physical exhaustion. The victims were often recorded and drugged to stay compliant. Combs’ employees and high-ranking associates of Combs Enterprises are also accused of facilitating the “freak offs” and engaging with them.

Combs’ crimes and “Blink Twice” share the theme of abuse of power.

Frida represents countless women lured by wealth and the possibility of romance. Power is attractive, especially to someone like Frida, who feels invisible daily. In the case of Sean “Diddy” Combs, he promised his victims fame or a relationship, and he used this to keep them compliant with the abuse. Through Frida, we see into the mindset of a young woman who is taken advantage of and how the rich and powerful have the means to get away with abuse- control and discretion.

Blink Twice also explores cancel culture and performative forgiveness.

In recent years, many people throw around the term “cancel culture” to criticize how people hold public figures accountable for their actions. Though it’s heavily debated whether a person can be truly “canceled,” it’s caused many celebrities to engage in performative forgiveness to avoid public scrutiny.

Kravitz demonstrated this with Slater King. Exposition in the beginning of the film shows Slater’s viral apology video for his abuse of power at his tech company. On the island, he demonstrates to a tied up and bloodied Frida how easy it is to fake a sincere apology. In a haunting monologue, he repeats “I’m sorry” multiple times, going from sincere to loud and angry. He proves how apologies don’t make someone forgive emotional pain. According to Slater, “There is no forgiveness. There’s just forgetting.” In a sick and twisted way, he believes that he’s doing the women a favor by “sparing” them of the memories of their assaults.

What was that ending?

The ending of “Blink Twice” left me equally shook and conflicted.

After getting their memories back, Frida and Sarah trick Heather and Camilla into drinking the venom with tequila shots. Upon regaining their memories, Camilla kills Cody, and Heather fatally injures Vic before she is shot down by Slater’s Bodyguard. Frida and Sarah plan to take out the rest of the men. By the end, Slater has captured both women, but before he can kill Sarah, he takes a hit of his vape and forgets all the preceding events. It’s revealed that Frida laced his vape pen with the Desideria perfume. Frida, Sarah, and Slater escape a villa as it burns down. Later in the future, Frida marries Slater, and she’s the CEO of King Tech. Slater is kept docile by his laced vape pen, allowing Frida to be in control at all times.

While I enjoyed how the women did not waste any time enacting revenge, I felt unsure about the ending. I can’t fathom how someone would want to marry their abuser. Frida has been on the island twice, and by the second time, she realized that she must leave with something- and that something was Slater.

By the end, she got him and his company; retribution for the abuse she endured twice on the island. Like many women, Frida isn’t a perfect victim, and her idea of justice is power instead of punishment.