Directed by Zoë Kravitz | Written by Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum | ▲▲▲▲△ | Amazon Prime

Frida (Naomi Ackie) and Jess (Alia Shawkat) are pals and work as servers at big events, but one quick change into formal wear later and they’re in the company of Slater King (Channing Tatum), a billionaire who’s done some stuff in the past he’s had to apologize publicly for. He takes a shine to Frida and invites both ladies to his private Caribbean island. They can’t believe their luck.  Frida and Jess enjoy themselves in paradise — it’s all luxury villas, fantastic food, a swimming pool, booze and drugs, all in the company of Slater and his chums. They include Simon Rex, Adria Arjona (so good in Hit Man), Christian Slater, Haley Joel Osment, Liz Caribel, another talented offspring of Uma and Ethan, Levon Hawke, with nice support from Kyle MacLachlan and Geena Davis.

But something is off, they just can’t put their fingers on what it is.

And that’s where the tension lies — somewhere off at the conclusion of this picture is a big basket of horror, but the getting there is a fantastic exercise in building tension. I did not see where this was going, but I was thrilled in how it got me there. That the film’s working title was Pussy Island is a great gag, but doesn’t really prepare you for what awaits.

You’d figure in Kravitz’s years on the sets of filmmakers like George Miller and Steven Soderbergh she would’ve picked up some tricks of the trade, but this is a fully formed filmmaking talent who knows exactly what she wants — from the pacing to the location to the lighting, editing, and performances, everything clicks. Tatum is perfect as the mysterious Slater, a charismatic, slightly bro-y dude, but not so much that you don’t like him — he presents as kind. The revelation here is Ackie, who needs to share a full suite of emotion to deliver the film’s twists and make them land.

There’s also humour in the script, but of the most mordant, pitch black variety, especially when we get to that third act reveal. All along Kravitz is dropping hints, and when the truth comes out it’s like she’s saying, “Well, what the fuck did you expect?”

Where it maybe skips a beat or two is where it falls prey to what I call “horror character behaviour.” Certain people act in ways that don’t make a lot of sense if they want to have long and fulfilling lives.

But those are minor issues in this highly impressive, wholly fun effort. A lot of people are comparing it favorably to Get Out, and it certainly owes a debt to Jordan Peele’s groundbreaking feature debut, but the film it really shares thematic threads with is the unfairly maligned Don’t Worry, Darling. Go see it with friends and have a good time.