Blink Twice review – Zoë Kravitz’s thrilling, chilling directorial debut

The directorial debut of the actor Zoë Kravitz, Blink Twice is a slickly efficient thriller that turns gender politics into a full-blooded, bone-crunching, skin-flaying combat zone. It’s wildly entertaining – a sharp-witted genre movie that combines the clued-in messaging of Jordan Peele’s Get Out with a touch of the skin-prickling unease of Alex Garland’s Men .

British actor Naomi Ackie is terrific as klutzy cocktail waitress Frida who, in a catastrophic meet-cute, falls at the feet of tech-billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum). He invites her and her best friend, Jess (Alia Shawkat), to his island retreat. But Frida’s Cinderella story is not what it seems, and there’s something amiss in this tropical paradise.

Related: ‘I see the world for what it is’: actor Naomi Ackie’s rage-fuelled rising star

The actor-to-director path is fraught with pitfalls, but I am happy to report that Kravitz is very much the real deal. The picture is visually rich – look out for the alarm flashes of toxic yellow she introduces into the colour palette – and the use of sound gave me chills. And if aspects of the screenplay might not hold up to neuro-physiological scrutiny, the glorious savagery of the final act makes up for it.

• In UK and Irish cinemas