Table of Contents
Welcome once again to Creepy Catalog’s daily horror digest. Today’s highlighted movie is one that I was hoping would be cheesy fun. We don’t always get what we hope for though. Take a look below at my quick review, and keep reading for a better recommendation, a bit of news, and daily trivia!
Movie of the Day
Today’s movie is Never Blink, a sci-fi horror movie with a basic idea that has potential. I was looking forward to it after seeing the trailer. The effects look pretty decent for a micro-budget movie, and the premise of opening a pathway to a dimension with monsters reminded me of From Beyond (1986). However, Never Blink is no From Beyond.
Never Blink follows Dr. Kessi Aaron (Tatjana Marjanovic). She’s in charge of a study that is mapping the interdimensional connections that the brain accesses while we blink. Or something like that. There’s an explanation given at the beginning of the movie that is built upon thin and rickety logic. It’s one of those moments in a movie when it’s best to just take what you can from the gobbledygook told to us, and accept it at face value while hoping for a more clear picture as the story progresses. The picture does get more clear in some ways, but less so in others. But back to the synopsis.
One of the patients in Dr. Aaron’s study is in a vegetative state, which happened before Dr. Aaron was assigned to the project by her boss, Dr. Peter Conrad (Marcus Jean Pirae). Also, every once in a while a monster shows up and kills people. Is there a connection between the monster, the non-responsive test subject, and the study into alternate dimensions? Yes, and finding that connection is the main driving force of the film.
I didn’t really enjoy Never Blink. It’s overlong, and questionable storytelling choices led to it being boring for long stretches. For instance, characters and relationships are all underdeveloped. This leads to moments falling flat even though the movie clearly wants us to feel something. Like, the main character has two very important relationships (which I won’t talk about because of spoilers), but neither is given enough screen time to have an emotional impact.
There are also many shortcuts taken for the sake of moving the plot along quickly. An example is when a disagreement rises between two people about whether or not to move forward with clinical trials. The disagreement escalates absurdly quickly based on tropes about losing funding, but we’re never given the background for any of it to be believable. This kind of thing, explaining insufficiently, happens more than a few times. It makes it difficult to feel any tension when stakes come and go in an instant.
There are some good things though. The monster looks good, and the violence it perpetrates is fun to watch. The low-budget gore is cheesy and fun. And the lengths some people go to keep their eyes open (the monster can find you when you blink, or so we’re told) are nicely gruesome. I just wish there was a lot more of that throughout the entire movie.
Star Rating: 2 out of 5
If Never Blink had been shorter (it’s 113 minutes), and if there were more of the monster and dimension-hopping through the entire movie, I’d recommend it. As it is, I was mostly bored until the final sequences, so I can’t really recommend it until it hits a free service like Tubi. As of now, Never Blink is available as a digital rental on sites including Prime Video.
Related Movie Recommendation
I mentioned it already, but From Beyond (1986) is what I recommend instead of Never Blink. They’re not exactly the same thing, but at a basic level they both deal with monsters and overlapping dimensions. From Beyond is based on the H.P. Lovecraft story of the same name, and it’s about a scientist who develops a device that stimulates something inside humans that allows them to see creatures that live in a dimension parallel to ours. It’s a classic, and you can stream it on Tubi.
In the News
- Rohan Campbell (Halloween Ends) joined the cast of the unnamed sea-creature limited series coming from Netflix. He joins Josh Hartnett and Mackenzie Davis who have already been announced for the series. (Deadline)
- The upcoming horror-comedy Horrified added Doug Jones, Jason Behr, Allison Dunbar, and Aimeé Teegarden to its cast. The film, written and directed by Michael Zera, stars Julie Benz as a fading scream queen who faces off against someone imitating the killer from her movies. (Deadline)
Birthdays
Wunmi Mosaku was born on July 31st, 1986. Wunmi has appeared in some fantastic horror movies, most recently co-starring in Sinners as Annie, the wise and spiritual Hoodoo practitioner. She also starred in the excellent supernatural/psychological film His House (2020), and she was a series regular in Lovecraft Country (2020).
Also celebrating a birthday today (born in 1962) is Wesley Snipes. Wesley hasn’t been in many horror movies throughout his career, but he starred in Gallowwalkers (2012) and made a guest appearance in a season-one episode of What We Do in the Shadows in 2019. His most famous horror-adjacent role is, of course, as Blade in the trilogy of Blade films from 1998 to 2004, and in the 2024 film Deadpool & Wolverine.
Japanese horror icon Junji Ito was also born on July 31st, in 1963. Ito is a mangaka (manga writer and illustrator) whose work has entertained and unsettled readers for nearly four decades (his first story, Tomie, was published in 1987). His stories have been adapted numerous times in movies and TV, in both live-action and animated formats. Last year I did a deep dive into all of the adaptations of Junji Ito’s manga. It needs some slight updating, but you can read it here.
One of the most important filmmakers in the history of Italian horror cinema, Mario Bava, was born on July 31st, 1914. Mario’s accolades and body of work are too extensive to list here, but a few of his most influential films include Black Sunday (1960), Black Sabbath (1963), Blood and Black Lace (1964), and A Bay of Blood (aka Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971).
Events on This Day
The Lost Boys opened in US theaters on July 31st, 1987. The Lost Boys is a touchstone for vampires on film. Its momentum as a force in pop-culture influence has remained steady over the years, with sequels, comic books, and all sorts of merchandise still being in demand. There’s even a Broadway musical coming our way in 2026. The Lost Boys is available as a rental on Prime Video.
The Collector was also released on July 31st, in 2009. The movie was at one point pitched as a prequel/spinoff of the Saw franchise, but the story was altered prior to production to make it into its own thing. The story is about a man who tries to rob a house, but finds it filled with deadly traps. You can stream The Collector on Prime Video.
Thanks for reading! I’m not sure what I’m watching tonight, but I’m crossing my fingers for something good.
