Three years after his feature length directorial debut with the Evil Dead remake, Fede Alvarez takes his next dive into the horror realm with Don’t Breathe. An original premise with likable characters, high levels of suspense, and unnerving plot twists, Don’t Breathe is an entertaining viewing experience, and, surprisingly, one of the few enjoyable movies of this summer.
Set in the not-so-glamorous city of Detroit, the story focuses on a trio whose line of work consists of home burglaries. With the end goal in sight, the group sets their eyes on the home of a blind man where their big score awaits. However, they soon discover this disabled man isn’t as helpless as he seems as the goal shifts to just surviving.
Part of what makes the story intriguing is the graying of morality. We understand the depressing backgrounds of two of the three burglars (Rocky and Alex) and what motivates them to commit crimes, while at the same time not being completely against The Blind Man’s efforts to stop intruders who are attempting to steal from him, especially considering he has already lost something very dear. It is only after we discover the darker secrets The Blind Man is hiding that we primarily root for the burglars (or at least two of the three as one is such a blatant piece of shit that he’s killed in the trailer, sorry if that’s a spoiler but it shouldn’t be. I mean, the guy’s name is Money for Gods sake.)
Jane Levy plays her role as Rocky well enough to make the audience like her even when she says and does some idiotic things. She’s developing the credentials to be the next Scream Queen as she appears to be Alvarez’s favorite leading actress since she also starred in his Evil Dead. Regarding the second burglar, Alex, Dylan Minnette’s character is the more sympathetic as we see he is mainly forced in this position due to other factors, and frequently attempts to be the group’s voice of reason.
However, it is Stephen Lang’s performance as The Blind Man that outshines the pack. Despite being non-verbal for majority of the movie, Lang’s intense demeanor and physicality create a villain that is a breath of fresh air compared to the various ghosts and demons that have become a stale fixture in most of the recent horror movies. He is also not completely unattached from humanity, a rarity for the genre’s villains.
Fede Alvarez deserves a lot of praise as well. His uncanny ability to produce quality horror films, something far from easy, shows not only through his creation of this unique and original story, but also his execution of well-timed suspense. Tension isn’t built through an over reliance on cheap scares with things quickly jumping out at the audience, but knowing when to shift from faint, suspenseful music to complete dead silence making the audience cautious at the slightest sounds like The Blind Man. It is in these moments when the camera works masterfully with tracking shots going through the levels of the house with an unsettling slowness, and pauses at certain objects and sounds (like a saw hanging on a wall or someone stepping on a piece of glass) to signal that these may come in play now or later. This is exemplified in one of the movie’s strongest sequences in which Rocky and Alex must grope their way through a pitch black basement while eluding The Blind Man whose sharp hearing gives a distinct advantage.
Don’t Breathe is a much different style of horror compared to Alvarez’s Evil Dead remake which focused more on over-the-top violence and gore to upset its audience, yet Alvarez shows versatility with suspense driven storytelling making a case to be the next great horror director.
7.7/10
Lopes
Letters from Lopes 