SnipG Thanks, this effect doesn't seem to affect the performance at all. Unfortunately, it's not very nice looking, it adds horizontal and vertical stripes/artefacts to some images. If nothing else works, I'll use it, as it's definitely the fastest!
DiegoM Yeah, that was my other idea, but with Drawing Canvas. Apply blur to a sprite, paste it on Drawing Canvas, hide the sprite. At the end of the level, remove Drawing Canvas, re-show the sprite, slowly remove the blur.