DON'T BLINK

Zack Ward

DON'T BLINK (2014). Written and directed by Travis Oates.

A group of people head to an isolated lodge for rest and relaxation and discover a situation like on the Marie Celeste: everyone's gone, with uneaten plates of food in the dining room. People's belongings are in their rooms, and their cars are in the parking lot. But where the hell is everyone? As the members of the group try to figure out where everyone has gone, one by one they begin disappearing. Sometimes this happens in a matter of seconds simply when someone's back is turned (there's a great scene involving a refrigerator door). As the group realizes that there's something unnatural and illogical going on, the stress begins to tell and violence breaks out ...  Don't Blink has gotten some serious hatred from viewers who are expecting a mystery film with a clear-cut explanation for the weird events, but if you take this as a Twilight Zone-like suspense film, it is certainly tense, absorbing and entertaining. The young actors really help put this over. As the nominal star Brian Austin Greene is adequate, but the picture is stolen by the dynamic Zack Ward as Alex, who begins to lose it in frightening fashion. It would be easy to suggest that Ward occasionally over-acts, but it's actually the script that makes him seem over-the-top. Joanne Kelly also scores as Claire, showing us the terror that is always just underneath even when she's making jokes to keep her spirits up. The final scene is a hoot!

Verdict: Seriously creepy psychological thriller and the evocation of a nightmare. *** out of 4.