The Blacklight: a fast-paced, crime filled thriller

Here’s a movie for people who enjoy violence but don’t feel like watching horror. The Blacklight (2021) is a fast-paced suspenseful thriller packed with witty dialogue, villainous characters, and lots of murder.

What’s The Blacklight about?

The Blacklight follows Danny, a man with a crime-ridden past who, despite his fairly good moral compass, gets involved with a rich kid who likes the thrill of crime. While trying to rob a wealthy home, they end up finding an object which possesses strange otherworldly magic. As you can guess, everyone wants this thing, and what follows is a ton of insane characters killing each other to get it.

The movie is titled after its own MacGuffin. The Blacklight is a piece of cloth that acts as a key to immortality and god-like power. It’s a fairly interesting object which does a good job of driving the plot forward and motivating the multitude of characters.

Let me break down The Blacklight a little more: the plot is a little messy, but there are lots of scenes that manage to be funny and entertaining. Most of the dialogue has a quick back-and-forth dynamic, which works sometimes in a great way, but other times feels forced. There are a lot, and I mean a lot, of characters and storylines to keep track of. All that being said, the third act made everything worthwhile.

It’s also worth mentioning that my favorite character Lucky, played amazingly by Richard Templeton, is absolutely psychotic. This guy is insane, scary, and honestly does feel like a person who could be real and pose a genuine threat.

From a design perspective, the sets in The Blacklight are really interesting and always visually stimulating. The acting isn’t bad, although some of it feels a little hollow. The writing isn’t perfect, but it overall does the job. Quite frankly, the only real sin a movie could commit in my eyes is to be boring – and this movie is definitely not boring.

The Blacklight is available to rent for as low as $1.99 on Amazon Prime Video and Vudu. You can also rent/buy the movie on Google Play and YouTube.

What did you think of The Blacklight? Let us know in the comments!