Note: The following article contains discussion of sexual misconduct.
Blink Twice spoilers follow.
Margaret Atwood once said (we paraphrase): "Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them."
It's a phrase that's hard to shake off while watching Blink Twice, a thriller set on a remote island owned by tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum).
The movie stars Naomi Ackie as Frida, a waitress living in a tiny apartment with roommate Jess (Alia Shawkat). With aspirations for a better future, Frida keeps her eyes on King as she and Jess work his company's fundraiser event, furtively changing into evening gowns to infiltrate the ultra-rich crowd.
Despite trying to play it cool, Frida trips and falls in the gallery space, helped up by King who spends the rest of the evening locked in conversation with her. When he invites Frida and Jess to jet off to his private island, along with his wealthy friends (including Christian Slater), the answer's yes.
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What happens next? Well, that depends on who you ask. The trip seems hedonistic, filled with lazy days in the pool, endless champagne, candlelit dinners and drug-fuelled nights, over and over until nobody knows what day it is.
But as good as things seem to be going, there's something eerie bubbling under the surface. How did Frida's dress, marked with blood earlier in the night, get clean? Why is there dirt under her nails? Why does the housekeeper keep saying "red rabbit" to Frida?
All becomes clear in the movie's second act, when Frida wakes up to find Jess gone and none of the other girls on the trip – including Adria Arjona as Sarah – remembering Jess ever being there.
As the men go fishing and the women share some ‘girl time', Frida makes the chilling discovery of what's really been happening after dinner each night. In an earlier scene, fellow guest Heather (Trew Mullen) asks why the women were all running – at first assumed to be MDMA-hazed antics, the answer is a lot more sinister.
Every night, King and his friends sexually assault the women and the perfume the women are gifted every day makes them forget. It's only the venom of the snakes on the island that can counteract the perfume.
Now that Frida knows what's happening to the women in the group, all of whom she mistakenly assumed to be close friends of Slater's crew, she has some tough decisions to make, enlisting Sarah to strategise a plan.
They're completely isolated on this island, having handed in their phones at the start of the trip to King's older female assistant (Geena Davis). Sarah suggests calling the police, but as Frida reminds her, who are the police more likely to side with – a Black waitress or the rich white billionaires they play golf with?
Instead, Frida and Sarah must bide their time, laughing and smiling with the men to hide their utter terror.
It's a familiar feeling for most women, playing polite and coy to ward off unwanted male advances. An outright rejection could easily lead to fatal consequences, so instead women have to weigh up their options and decide how much they can tolerate to safeguard themselves from something far worse.
It's a feeling skilfully shown as Frida and Sarah try to make it through one final dinner, Ackie's face flickering between fear and smiles to placate King. It's the same sense of assurance the women are expected to give back to the chorus of "Are you having a nice time?" throughout the movie. The answer must always be yes, something Frida begs of Jess.
Zoë Kravitz referenced "the complexity of the game" in her director's statement, saying, "My whole life I've had access to rooms filled with very powerful people. As [I got] older… I found myself having conversations with women I knew, or sometimes women I didn't know, with only our eyes.
"A language we are all, unfortunately, fluent in, because it is not safe to speak these thoughts out loud. To do so would be to break the rules of the game.
"Women are being told to smile, every day, all the time. We are expected to 'forget' moments of discomfort, terror and abuse and to keep pretending we are having a good time. We are expected to play the game."
In a post-Weinstein and Epstein world, women still face sexual harassment and violence on a far too regular basis, with conviction rates appallingly low.
Apologies mean nothing without change, as shown in one memorable scene with Tatum. While the question should be how to stop male harassment and violence, it's more practical for many women to work on how to handle it – especially someone like Frida, whose odds of beating the system are low. And if you can't beat them…
As Kravitz continued in her statement: "We all want power – social, cultural, financial, political. The question is: what will we do to get it? How do you play the game? This is not a story about empowerment. This is a story about power. Period."
Blink Twice is out now in cinemas.
If you've been affected by the issues raised in this story, you can access more information from Rape Crisis England and Wales, which works towards the elimination of all forms of sexual violence and sexual misconduct, on its website or by calling the National Rape Crisis Helpline on 0808 802 9999. Rape Crisis Scotland’s helpline number is 08088 01 03 02.
Readers in the US are encouraged to contact RAINN, or the National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800-656-4673.
Isabella is a freelance journalist who has written on young women's issues, entertainment, TV and film, South Asian representation, mental health, dating and so much more. She has bylines in ELLE, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Prima, Digital Spy, Women's Health, and Harper's Bazaar, and was named 30 Under 30 by MediaWeek, PPA and We Are The City. She was also shortlisted for Workplace Hero at the Investing In Ethnicity Awards and Hero of the Year at the European Diversity Awards. Follow Isabella on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
