When a filmmaker makes a film, he should know more about the movie than the audience ever will. He should have back stories on all his characters and know the meaning of every event that takes place. The problem with 'Don't Blink' is that this is clearly not the case. Debut writer/director Travis Oates has come up with an interesting little premise for a film here, but sadly was unable to come up with an explanation of any real sort for his story. I'm not saying he needed to spell it out in clear letters to the audience, but there needed to be hints and clues that lead in some way to a plausible explanation for the viewers to at least speculate over. It's sad because this was only a good ending away from being a very fine horror/mystery film.
Mena Suvari's extremely brief screen time was a real surprise to me. I kept expecting her to come back into the story and that that would in some way hold the twist. Nope nothing. There one minute, gone the next. Her character was even revealed to be pregnant minutes before she was gone. For what reason? No idea. Oates might need to spend a bit more time polishing the script on whatever his next project is. Luckily though the rest of the cast was surprisingly good and watchable. A rarity in the horror genre. A particular stand-out for me was Zack Ward. His final scene had me captivated and was actually a very well written and performed piece of cinema.
I went into this film knowing it had a low rating here on IMDb and i Kept wondering to myself why. Then the ending occurred and I clicked. Oates tries to cover up his complete lack of an explanation with a clever ending but it simply isn't clever enough and thus never actually covers anything up at all. The dialogue he wrote throughout was very good. A little more intensity in some scenes would go a long way, but I think there is some real potential there. If he has another crack at the genre I look forward to seeing how it turns out.
Mena Suvari's extremely brief screen time was a real surprise to me. I kept expecting her to come back into the story and that that would in some way hold the twist. Nope nothing. There one minute, gone the next. Her character was even revealed to be pregnant minutes before she was gone. For what reason? No idea. Oates might need to spend a bit more time polishing the script on whatever his next project is. Luckily though the rest of the cast was surprisingly good and watchable. A rarity in the horror genre. A particular stand-out for me was Zack Ward. His final scene had me captivated and was actually a very well written and performed piece of cinema.
I went into this film knowing it had a low rating here on IMDb and i Kept wondering to myself why. Then the ending occurred and I clicked. Oates tries to cover up his complete lack of an explanation with a clever ending but it simply isn't clever enough and thus never actually covers anything up at all. The dialogue he wrote throughout was very good. A little more intensity in some scenes would go a long way, but I think there is some real potential there. If he has another crack at the genre I look forward to seeing how it turns out.