Never Blink

I Have awarded five stars, which to be honest is more than generous, and is mainly for the really original premiss. After reading the synopsis I was so excited to watch this. Unfortunately it was badly let down by some below average acting, very hammy dialogue and more plot holes than a gopher ridden garden. To be fair, this was clearly not a highly budgeted effort, and did well with what it had, but could have, and should have been so much better. But the idea of seeing what you can't see when you blink, and that is something awful, is intriguing. Casting played a big part in the failure of this, many of the actors did not fit their roles. The lead female was just way too young, and did not have the gravitas for the part. Would love to see a budgeted remake.

The concept of this film was intriguing. What other realities exist when we blink? However what the film started with, it quickly lost due to poor effects, silly dialogue, stilted acting and an absurd ending.

Some specifics: the make- up person should never work again; all the female characters had so much makeup on they looked like prostitutes. Characters blurt out lines that lack context. The adopted brother of the main researcher declares, "I am black and gay" without ever developing that story line further. The dream sequences are utterly slow and boring. The deep voice of the "monster" announces another killing where the victim never tries to escape. In one scene a nurse, soon to be victim, enters her locked car then realizes she "dropped" her keys about 20 feet away. The film is loaded with over and under acting, bad effects, implausable plot twists, and ludicrous tag lines "say hello to your f@@@ing offspring" In the end, a very original premise was destroyed by a bad script, bad directing, bad acting, bad visual effects, and bad execution. I wanted to blink, hoping that this film would disappear. Sadly, it didn't.

Never Blink is another good idea with potential ruined by poor writing, poor acting, and poor execution. As with most projects where the Writers and Directors are the same people this is a project that needed a different set of eyes either behind the cameras, or in the writer's room to improve it.

The characters are all stereotypical; it felt like there was a checklist drawn up of character types (the goth, the drug addict, the psychic, the doctor in over their head, the gay, and then people of each race to make sure the diversity quotient is there. The dialog is likewise ham-fisted and banal, with the usual lines from each stereotype.

A rewrite or two more, and a seasoned director could've turned this into something so much better. I really wanted to enjoy this more, if for no other reason, the premise alone.

The story is not that bad. Editing, acting is below average. Looks like some college students did this movie as a project. Camera angles were not in the right place.

From the minute 21 to the minute 23 of the movie you could see the actors trying to act the movie not feel the movie script. To add some feel to acting I guess the director added some cussing words. From the minute 24 to 27 ish, the scene at stairs goes fast or the standing of actors is not well positioned that you could tell or see is bad.

While I had indeed never heard about this 2025 horror movie titled "Never Blink", I will say that the movie's cover was interesting enough to make me stop and take notice. And with it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to check out what directors Christopher Saint Booth and Philip Adrian Booth had to offer.

Writers Christopher Saint Booth, Philip Adrian Booth and Ami Orava didn't exactly deliver a stellar script here. The narrative was slow paced and sluggish, and there just simply wasn't enough of anything interesting to keep me interested. I felt my attention span wane from the movie several times throughout the course of the 113 minutes that the movie ran for.

The young cast members that were supposed to be medical students, just didn't really have a believable medical student vibe to them, and that made it rather difficult to take them serious in those roles.

I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, which was actually something that spoke in favor of the movie, as I enjoy watching new and unfamiliar talents on the screen. The acting performances were fair, though hardly something to write home about.

"Never Blink" looks and felt like an ambitious low budget horror movie.

Now, the movie plays for 113 minutes, nearly two hours. So it is nearly two hours of general boredom. And it was quite a struggle to sit through. So the movie would have benefitted tremendously from a more round-handed trim in post editing.

Visually then you're not in for anything grand. The light-up goggles that the so-called medical students wore, well they were from Wish or AliExpress. I have a pair just like them that I bought off of AliExpress for my son.

The movie's cover was actually the best thing about the movie. A sad fact, but a true fact.

My rating of "Never Blink" lands on a most generous three out of ten stars.