Blink Twice and Strange Darling are two of 2024’s best horror movies, which is why it’s a crime they’re hitting screens on the same day.
Summer season is drawing to a close, and this year animated movies dominated in cinemas, with Despicable Me 4 making a fortune, and Inside Out 2 the current box office king.
But scary fare also made a mint at the movies, with Longlegs, MaXXXine, and A Quiet Place: Day One suggesting that horror films might be the new summer blockbusters.
Two new genre flicks have a shot at joining their ranks in US cinemas this coming weekend, which is why it’s a shame they’ll have to compete with each other for bums on seats.
Blink Twice is the wider release, thanks to a bigger budget and all-star cast. The directorial debut of Zoë Kravitz, the plot concerns two women being lured to a billionaire’s private island, where all isn’t quite as it seems, and paradise comes at a deeply unpleasant price.
Channing Tatum plays the central billionaire in question, while the impressive ensemble features Naomie Ackie, Alia Shawkat, Haley Joel Osment, Christian Slater, Adria Arjona, Kyle MacLachlan, and Geena Davis.
We loved the movie, awarding it four stars, and writing in our Blink Twice review that the story “poignantly interweaves a complex tale of abuse and manipulation while also exposing the way power dynamics and wealth can be dangerous pairings when in the wrong hands.”
It deserves to be a monster hit. But Blink Twice releases the same day as Strange Darling, and that’s a problem.
Written and directed by J.T. Mollner, the film stars Kyle Gallner as a serial killer and Willa Fitzgerald as his next potential victim, with the movie taking place over one day – but proceedings jumping back and forth in time in diabolically effective fashion.
We awarded the film five stars, and wrote in our Strange Darling review: “the movie builds to a climax that’s both shocking, and extremely satisfying, resulting in a genuine crowd-pleaser that should be watched with the biggest audience you can find.”
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We’re in good company, as master of the macabre Stephen King recently saw the movie, and deemed it a “masterpiece.” But finding that big audience could be difficult, as Strange Darling and Blink Twice are now rivals – which is criminal, as the films have so much in common.
They are both horror movies, though Strange Darling more so. They both deal in gender politics, though Blink Twice leans more in that direction. And both movies are thrillers which at their dark heart are jet-black comedies.
Meaning these movies are going after exactly the same eyeballs, which will cannibalize their respective audiences, and that just isn’t fair on films that need to make a splash during opening weekend, or risk disappearing without a trace.
The pair’s plight isn’t helped by the fact that a long-gestating remake of The Crow just happens to be releasing this weekend, which is also a horror movie – albeit a supernatural scarer – and therefore trying to attract that very same crowd.
This suggests all three films are being set up to fail – which is ridiculous, as a solution is just around the corner. We’re weeks away from October, when horror takes center stage in the run-up to Halloween; the perfect time to release one, two, or even all three of these movies.
Even counter-programming might have been a better option than this, pitching either film as an alternative to the action of Deadpool & Wolverine or the drama of It Ends With Us rather than one of its own.
Admittedly, we’re less fussed about The Crow, but Blink Twice and Strange Darling need time to breathe, build word-of-mouth, and become the hits they so richly deserve to be. So if you have the time and money to spend this weekend, support great horror, watch both movies, and thank us later.
Blink Twice is out everywhere tomorrow, while Strange Darling releases in US cinemas tomorrow, and hits UK screens on September 20. For more scary content, check out our list of the best horror movies of all time, as well as our preview of what to watch at FrightFest in London this weekend.
