What I Watched in August 2024

From a 50,000 foot view there is nothing ground breaking about the story being told in BLINK TWICE (2024). It’s a straightforward female revenge tale in which multiple women exact bloody retribution on scumbag men. The structure of the plot hides the horrors being enacted in a clever way with the audience and the female characters slowly becoming aware that something strange is happening on an isolated billionaire’s island. This kind of film has been made for decades with varying degrees of success and excess. They range from crude and effective like I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (1978) to artful and effective like LADY VENGEANCE (2005) and PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN (2020). But it seems to me that director Zoe Kravitz has done real homework studying the rape/revenge cinema of the past beyond just the more famous entries in the genre. I spotted several stylistic choices and certain editing techniques that reminded me of the Japanese film series Female Convict Scorpion. Tilted camera angles and bluntly editing away from dialog before the final obvious words are spoken can be seen both as a nod to those films (and others that used the technique) but also serves to be early indicators about what is being done to the protagonists. Indeed, BLINK TWICE is a very sure-footed film showing a strong sense of craft and vision that is always at the service of the story. The film hides its plot revelations well and allows the mystery to unfold naturally allowing the main character’s sense of curiosity to shift to anxiety and finally horror. This is a well cast movie sporting solid performances across the board with some character’s turns from antagonistic to friendly and (mostly) in the opposite direction seeming to be ordinary outgrowths of what we’ve seen in the proceeding scenes. This is a thriller that delivers not just the expected chills but provides a satisfying violent third act that feels justly deserved. And that final scene is quite nice!

For me, the most fascinating idea in the film is the question of memory and whether it is healthy to remember the traumas you have experienced in your life. One character speaks about not being able to remember anything from before the age of ten and contrasts that with a sister that remembers everything. Without getting into the question of if this offscreen sister has eidetic memory or not, the inability to remember events from childhood can be a sign of trauma. The film seems to be suggesting that those who can remember all the horrors of their life are doomed to never transcend them – until that revenge ending shows the other possible path forward. But the film does ask the broad question of is it better to remember every trauma, embarrassment, insult or slight? Or is it better to have time hide, or at least dull, those sharp moments? And what is the best way to handle real transgressions? Can our memory always be trusted?  These questions are not the focus of BLINK TWICE but having them as part of the story adds a level of awareness I was not expecting. We are a combination of our life experiences and our reactions to them. Sometimes the most transgressed against are the ones who end up overcoming and succeeding because of those terrible experiences.

Plus, billionaires are generally awful people.

The List

THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR (1961) – 7 (fun Disney silliness) 

KNOX GOES AWAY (2024) – 8 

HELLRAISER (1987) – 8 (rewatch on Blu) 

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE (2024) – 8 

5 WOMEN FOR THE KILLER (1974) – 7 (giallo with interesting cast) 

BARBARIAN QUEEN (1985) – 6 (rewatch)

MAN WITH A CLOAK (1951) – 8 (rewatch) 

AVENGER X (1967) – 6 

FATAL WITNESS (1945) – 6 (slight mystery from Republic Studio with Evelyn Ankers)

THE STRANGE LOVE OF THE VAMPIRE (1975) – 6 (rewatch on Blu)

LOVE LIES BLEEDING (2024) – 7 

HELLRAISER II: HELLBOUND (1988) – 8 (rewatch on Blu)

HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH (1993) – 5 (rewatch on Blu) 

HELLRAISER IV: BLOODLINE (1996) – 4 (a composite workprint found on YouTube – good ideas but a mess) 

TAROT (2024) – 6 (well directed, good characters and it looks great but its only pretty good)

SHARKSPLOITATION (2023) – 8 (excellent documentary on the beloved genre) 

SUDDEN FURY (1975) – 8 (excellent Canadian thriller)

JUNGLE MOON MEN (1955) – 5 (not bad but overlong Jungle Jim tale) 

FATAL GAMES (1984) – 6 (ridiculous low budget slasher with a lot of nudity) 

BOOKS OF BLOOD (2020) – 7 (adaptations of three Barker tales) 

BANDH DWWAZA (1990) – 5 (pretty silly, overlong Bollywood vampire film) 

THE RED DRAGON (1945) – 6 (Charlie Chan mystery)

ALIEN: ROMULUS (2024) - 7

HIDDEN GOLD (1940) – 5 (solid Hopalong Cassidy adventure) 

THE FEATHERED SERPENT (1948) – 6 (Charlie Chan mystery)

THE SKY DRAGON (1949) – 7 (very good Charlie Chan mystery)

BLINK TWICE (2024) – 8 

HOPALONG CASSIDY (1935) – 6 (first of the series) 

THE MUMMY AND THE CURSE OF THE JACKALS (1969) – 3 (gloriously terrible!)

THE CASE OF THE BLACK PARROT (1941) – 6 (pretty sharp stage adaptation) 

SATANIK (1968) – 6 (fumetti adaptation with a wicked female anti-hero)