Never Blink

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 experiments with a fresh idea packaged in classic low budget horror. Look, this is not a slick blockbuster. But, it isn't trying to be. It's opening the doors to a new world; a world I really hope gets further explored in other works with bigger budgets.

Never Blink delivers some classic low budget horror tropes and gore but if you unwrap that, there's a really smart and novel premise at the core: tons of fuel for future scifi and horror content if a bigger budget gets clearance to play with the concept.

Sometimes it actually felt "too smart" conceptually for the layperson, in the vein of Primer, which is maybe a bit misaligned from the occasional corniness and campiness also in the film, common to B horror movies.

Still, it's super unique and creative, and if you watch with an open mind and not expecting to see the next Oscar winner, it's a fun time. I really hope to see this idea expanded. The universe it creates definitely has a mountain of marketing and transmedia content potential.

It was enjoyable, and there was plenty of gore. It's a B movie done old school, just buckle up and enjoy the ride. It moves fairly quickly and builds, if you aren't paying attention you will miss things and won't get what's going on. I didn't like some of the dialogue, it was really smart and fresh in places and lame in others. Probably the different writers. I agree with the guy who said it could have used a more "seasoned director". True. If you are looking for things to hate, you'll find it. If you are looking for things to love, you'll find that too. The premise is awesome, the execution lacks in places. BUT STILL my mind is going in a million directions from all the possibilities! The monster dimension is fire and the ending makes it fun to argue about with friends! Someone please give this an A list reboot!

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.

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.