Saturday, October 11, 2014

angel eyes.

Don't Blink (2014).
Dir: Travis Oates.
Cast:  Mena Suvari, Brian Austin Green, Zack Ward, Joanne Kelly, Fiona Gubelmann, David de Latour, Leif Gantvoort, Curtiss Frisle, Emelie O’Hara and Samantha Jacober.

Don't blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And don't blink. Good Luck...hang on, that's Doctor Who.


A motley group of ten best buds - including such well worn characters as the loved up Jack and Tracy (Chromeskull's Green and former American Beauty Suvari), ginger rocket Alex (Resident Evil: Apocalypse's Ward), bookish Claire (Kelly) strange fish Noah (the Violet Wolf Ranger himself, de Lautour) and the laid back Sam (The Amazing Spider-Man' cash register crook himself Gantvoort) - get a wee bit of a surprise when upon arriving at a mountain resort in New Mexico they've booked for a weekend getaway discover that the entire area is totally deserted.

And by deserted I mean no people, birds or insects.

In fact the entire place is deader than a DLT's career options.

Which to our American readers is very, very dead indeed.

Paddington.


Having a quick scout around (which is more Gordon Kaye than DLT but there you go) our brave band discover definite signs of recent habitation; a cold uneaten breakfast sits on a table, there are unlock cars scattered around the hotels grounds and in one case a pair of boots left in a toilet cubicle as if their owner had simply vanished out of them.

Or was very thin and had fallen into the bowl and accidentally flushed themselves away whilst trying to climb out obviously.

The general conscientious is to leave ASAP but with the petrol pumps locked and no key available our merry band are left with the choice of a long walk in the snow or sticking around in the hope that they've inadvertently turned up in the middle of the world hide and seek  championships.

"Are you looking at my bra?"

Trying to make the most of what could be a shit scary situation (as opposed to just a pee yourself with fear kinda thing) the group decide to retire to the resort kitchen to prepare some snacks - especially some of those little cocktail sausages you get wrapped in bacon).

Then suddenly and without warning (nope not even a musical cue) one by one they start to vanish.

"And whatever you do don't get the discs mixed up when you take it back to the shop..."


Came across this recently (not in that way) and immediately had to see it....I mean it's called Don't Blink, it has folk disappearing in it and it features Mena Suvari?

This is going to be a laughable riff on the classic Doctor Who episode Blink isn't it?

At the very least it'll worth watching to take the piss out of I thought....

How wrong I was.

Who'd have thought that the man best known for voicing Piglet in Winnie The Pooh would bring us the most satisfying horror movie so far this year?


"Now hands up any of you who are Steven Moffat fans."

From it's lo-fi, old school premise via a confident believable cast to a bravely ambiguous conclusion, Don't Blink harks back to the heady days of The Twilight Zone (could this be a pattern emerging?) forgoing cheap shocks for a slow build up and some genuine surprises both in character reactions and situations.

Setting the film mainly in daylight and replacing the expected tween cast with a group of likable thirtysomethings is another stroke of greatness from writer/director Oates as is the brave choice of not over conceptualizing the films disappearances.

I was dreading some half arsed explanation for the unfolding events and was honestly taken by surprise at the movies climax.

Probably the most enjoyable 'unknown' flick since 2009's Pontypool, this little gem is a cut above the norm.

Seek it out, watch it, pass it on.

And whatever you do don't blink.

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