Don't Breathe (2016) • reviewsphere

One of those films that starts a little bland and ends with leaving the cinema not knowing whether to laugh, cry, or be sick. It comes from the mind of Fede Alvarez, who in 2013 made a name for himself by directing a not bad reboot of the horror classic Evil Dead. That and this film were helped along by a big name in the producer credits. Horror legend & creator of the original Evil Dead, Sam Raimi. While Alvarez’s 2013 film was a good effort but forgettable, Don’t Breathe is a triumphant work of “what the f**k!” cinema that has properly put this director and writer on the map of Horror without Raimi’s name needing mentioned.

Jane Levy (Evil Dead) stars in this film as a young woman who along with her two male compatriots – one nerdy, one “gangster” – robs houses in the city of Detroit in order to raise money to take her younger sister out of the city and away from her broken family. The classic “last job” comes in the form of a blind army veteran (Stephen Lang) who since losing his daughter to a car accident and then being paid off handsomely by the wealthy family that were to blame, now lives an isolated life away from society. Excluding of course his anger issues bearing pet Rottweiler. Thinking (as many would) that robbing a blind man is as easy as, well, robbing a blind man the three are confident in their plan to snatch and dash in the middle of the night as the old man sleeps. Their naivety is their downfall and as the film gets darker it’s revealed that this visually impaired, lonely ex-serviceman is the exact opposite of what he seems, and that the terrifying dark of night is where he feels comfortable.

The genre labelled to Don’t Breathe is horror. To slightly disagree with this, it feels more of an insanely dark, hard to watch, beyond messed up thriller. There are a few jumps and scares but none are particularly terror inducing. What’s better is the use of silence and the dark to re-emphasise that these three young adults are being intimidated by an OAP who cannot see where they are, and has to listen out for an exhale before attacking! And yet Lang gives his character no room to feel pity for with his chilling performance. The film is great not for any horror elements, but for the insane amounts of twists and turns. There’s never a chance to decide who to root for while the plot constantly changes direction and the characters dive deeper into the dark. While it starts out slightly slow and predictable, within 45 minutes the heart will be pounding and the mouth wide open. It will then stay this way for the duration. Alvarez’s second attempt at a major horror/thriller film has flown way past expectation and prompted a want for more of the man’s taste for clever storytelling in a genre where that can be hard to find.

Video courtesy of: Sony Pictures Entertainment

[imdb id=tt4160708]