Commentary: ‘Blink Twice’ Is A Well-Made Film With Weak Writing

There are so many different aspects of a film that it’s almost miraculous when they all work together to create a great experience. There’s editing, sound, cinematography, visual effects, and of course, writing. It’s debatable that writing may be the most important part because without a firm story, a film may not be engaging. But it’s totally possible for the writing to falter at points, even though all the other aspects of the film are top-notch. Blink Twice is a film that could have benefited from more script editing, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a well-made film overall.

The story follows a tech billionaire, Slater King (Channing Tatum), who has a bad boy reputation. He claims to have become reformed by creating an island where he practices peace and tranquility. He invites his friends and their dates to the island, even bringing along a woman he meets at a party named Frida (Noami Ackie). In reality, the island is nothing more than a place where he and his friends can live out their deviant sexual fantasies on women while wiping their memories so they don’t remember all of the terrible things that happened to them.

It adds up to a deeply unsettling film about sexual violence and abuses of power. However, in order to get the characters into positions for the plot to unfold properly, they have to make a series of fairly bad decisions. The writing could have used a bit more finesse in order to make the overall premise of the film plausible. It’s a horror movie designed to focus less on scares and more on atmosphere. The editing, sound engineering, cinematography, set design, acting … all of it is top notch. The filmmakers took great care to produce a worthwhile experience even though the story could use some work. It’s a great example that proves writing isn’t the end-all be-all of the cinematic journey.

Blink Twice is now streaming on MGM+.