Don't Blink (2014)

Tempers its intrigue with disappointment. _Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product._

***It’s about death*** Ten young people converge on a mountain lodge in the Rockies in the off season, but find it mysteriously abandoned. None of them can figure out what happened to the people and they don’t have enough gas to leave, so they’re stuck. The cast is headed by Brian Austin Green (Jack), Zack Ward (Alex), Mena Suvari (Tracy) and Joanne Kelly (Claire). Parts of "Don’t Blink" (2014) bring to mind movies like “Night of the Living Dead" (1968), "The Mist" (2007), "Phantoms" (1998) and "Donner Pass" (2011) with an ending that recalls “Wind Chill” (2007). But it’s by far the least of these because, while the mysterious set-up is good for about the first 35-40 minutes, it becomes one-dimensional and predictable, e.g. when the young guy kneels down behind the bar. Another flaw is that some of the dramatics feel forced and awkward, like the girl unconvincingly morphing into a preacher. Those other movies didn't have this problem because they had superior writers/filmmakers. There are 3-4 worthy women in the cast, including Suvari, Fiona Gubelmann (Ella) and Samantha Jacober (Charlotte), but the director/writer never really takes advantage of their presence, but he did good enough, I guess. The film runs 1 hour, 32 minutes and was shot in Ruidoso, New Mexico, USA. GRADE: C ***SPOILERS*** (Don’t read unless you’ve seen the movie): It might help to see the movie as a microcosm of death in our lives: Everyone and everything around us will eventually die one-by-one, so quick & unexpected it's like the blink of an eye. The catatonic girl (Charlotte) willfully calling her own disappearance symbolizes people who commit suicide. For everyone else, death comes in various unforeseen ways, often suddenly.