Blink Twice: is Zoe Kravitz's new film set to become the next White ...

Channing Tatum as Slater King in Blink Twice

The first two seasons of hit show White Lotus wowed viewers with its razor-sharp satirisation of the luxuried classes and its pointed takedowns of their cultural carelessness.

Now, a new film is set to take on the same topic and it has been directed by none other than American It Girl Zoë Kravitz. The trailer for Blink Twice dropped on Tuesday, with anticipation for the film causing a stir, given that it is Kravitz’s directorial debut and stars her fiancé, Channing Tatum.

The film centres around Tatum’s character: a charismatic tech billionaire who owns a private island. He invites two woman – Frida (Naomi Ackie) and Jess (Alia Shawkat) to the island for what is ostensibly a chilled out beach holiday. Needless to say, not everything is as it seems. The trailer opens on an ominous note, with a bloodied Tatum saying rather casually, ‘So, everybody’s dead. How about we start at the beginning?’

A still of the ensemble of guests

The guests descending the steps of King's mansion

Then a montage follows in which Tatum introduces a sequence of his friends: a colleague, a childhood friend and others. All of them are male. He then introduces a character called Sarah to a character called Frida, where Frida meets a somewhat frosty reception. As a montage depicts Frida and Jess’s arrival on the island, Frida mutters, ‘This is amazing’. But it seems obvious that everything is not going to work out for the best. In a moment of circumspection, Jess says ‘Did we just jet off to a billionaire’s island with a bunch of strangers?’.

‘We’re drinking champagne’, ‘We’re eating amazing food’, the pair intone. They are ready for the ‘legendary parties of Slater King’. But things begin to get a little unsettling as the holiday proceeds. Phones are collected – and Slater assures the women ‘You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do’.

Naomi Ackie as Frida

The trailer then reveals that forgetting is an important part of the film. Guests seem unable to remember what is happening to them. And some begin to conspire in an attempt to unravel the secret of the island. The following montages show scenes on the island descending into flames and violence. Blink Twice seems to emerge out of the White Lotus, Knives Out and Get Out mould. Zoe will be hoping it can outdo its forerunners.

The film arrives in cinemas on 23 August. It also stars Haley Joel Osment, Adria Arjona, Kyle MacLachlan, Simon Rex, Christian Slater, Liz Caribel and Geena Davis.