In Zoë Kravitz's Blink Twice, a Striking Red Hacienda Makes for a ...

Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut, the psychological thriller Blink Twice (in theaters this Friday), takes place almost entirely at one location: a private island owned by Slater King (portrayed by Channing Tatum), a supposedly reformed billionaire bad boy who’s still in the midst of rehabilitating his image. In reality, it’s Hacienda Temozon Sur, a 17th-century estate turned hotel in Mexico’s Yucatán region.

After a brief flirtation with King, Blink Twice’s main character Frida (Naomi Ackie) accepts the controversial tech mogul’s invitation to tag along on a group trip to the island. The picture-perfect romantic daydream unravels, revealing a nightmarish reality as the days wear on. “At first when I was writing the script I was picturing—because Slater is a tech billionaire—something a lot more modern,” Kravitz tells AD of the film, which she directed and co-wrote with E.T. Feigenbaum. “Then as we started to look at properties, I was very intrigued by having the backdrop of colonialism and kind of wanting the presence of the cycle of oppression as the backdrop of the story.”

“We considered painting [the building] to make a bold statement, because that’s kind of what our character [King] would do,” Bonelli explains. “At one point, we even considered painting it pink and black…but somehow it didn’t work.”

Production designer Roberto Bonelli interpreted the hacienda setting as a choice that aligned with King’s desire to edit his image “from being a young yuppie into somebody who is more respected, more [culturally conscious], more cool, more likable,” he explains. A modern mansion might communicate the character’s extreme wealth, but Bonelli figured a hacienda would indicate King’s hope to be seen as more evolved and worldly—even if, to Kravitz’s point about colonialism, it’s all a façade.

One of the work areas of Hacienda Temozon Sur was converted into a dining room for the film.

In order for the hotel to pass as a private compound on screen, Bonelli and his team made several tweaks to Hacienda Temozon Sur (on the condition that they would change everything right back at the end of production). “It was very important for us that it didn’t look like a hotel,” Bonelli says. To reimagine the pool space in Slater King’s private sanctuary style, the team removed all the railings from around the pool, created custom loungers, wrapped the area in greenery to provide some contrast, and added local Yucatan marble around the perimeter for a more luxe look. A sauna was built too—undoubtedly a must for a billionaire type like King. A few of the rooms, which weren’t spacious enough in reality, were built on a soundstage in Mexico City.

Additional plants were added around the bar area for the film.

The more drastic interventions to the Hacienda, though, including adding texture that fueled the narrative. The bedrooms, originally white, were repainted in bold colors and redecorated to reflect the characters. The exterior of the Hacienda was already an evocative crimson, and the team decided to keep it that way, simply touching it up to make it look as immaculate as a billionaire would keep it. Red appears elsewhere, too, but rather than using the hue as a symbol for danger—which might be the expected choice—blue was the “alarm color,” as Bonelli described it. Frida’s room is painted blue, and in a pivotal scene, the characters wear bright blue face masks.

The dramatic blues, reds, and greens of the film’s color palette contrast against the all-white outfits worn by the cast.

The symbolism of the colors—and the decadence of the property itself—start to take on new meaning for viewers once the film’s horror twist is revealed. “My hope is that the audience experiences things differently than they did before they knew what was going on,” Kravitz explains. “Environments that felt luxurious and exciting now feel kind of claustrophobic and terrifying.” Certainly, by the end of the film, the beauty of the property is seen for what it truly is: nothing more than an enticing trap.

Off camera, the cast hunkered down at the hacienda throughout production—though the atmosphere was decidedly less “Hotel California”–tinged. “We all stayed where we shot,” Kravitz says. “It was actually amazing and part of the reason that everybody felt so safe together and comfortable and free and friendly…. It could’ve gone horribly wrong, but I think it made the whole experience so much more fun.” Below, check out this exclusive video where Kravitz and the cast share more about their experience on set.

Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios