Don’t Breathe (2016) Review!!

Synopsis – A group of friends break into the house of a wealthy blind man, thinking they’ll get away with the perfect heist. They’re very wrong.

My Take – When a trailer promises suspense, my recent experience has been a few on the seat moments often deluded by cheesy plot lines and over exaggerated monsters. Until director Jeremy Saulnier‘s Green Room came along a few months back and decided to deliver on what was promised. Just when you thought you had seen one of the most incredible thrillers of the year, director Fede Alvarez in his sophomore run decides to give Green Room a run for its money with this incredibly intense film and glorious exercise in suspense. This was one of those films that I wasn’t terribly interested in when I first heard about it. I then saw the trailer and the promotional material and I was a little more interested. It has a pretty cool setup and although the actors aren’t big name stars (the only two I recognized were Stephen Lang and Dylan Minnette), the word-of-mouth around it was impressive. Having it seen it now, trust me; this is one of the best studio-produced thrillers I’ve seen in years. This is Alvarez‘s first film in three years since his violent and solid remake of Evil Dead, and it is with this film he solidifies his position as a genre filmmaker with some obvious talent. Of course, this film draws inspirations from Hitchcock & David Fincher films – but Alvarez provides his own unique vision that truly makes this one his own. Like the masters before him, this thriller is purely cinematic, relying less on dialogue and more on visual storytelling and sound to drive the film.

The story follows three young burglars, Rocky (Jane Levy), Alex (Dylan Minnette) and Money (Daniel Zovatto) living in Detroit. They have a pretty good system, they stick to small ticket items, they don’t take cash and they get in and out quickly. When Money is liquidating the stash from the most recent job, he gets a tip about another possible job. He’s told that in one of the abandoned parts of Detroit, there’s a lonely old blind war veteran (Stephen Lang) who is sitting on a about 300k from a settlement over his daughter being killed in a car accident. They scout out the house and plan to make their visit that very night. The only issue is that the old man turns out to be more adept that they realized. First off, this isn’t a horror film it is more of a thriller. While the setup is a little too pedestrian, albeit economical, once the story gets rolling, the film doesn’t let up, running at a lean 88 minutes. The film starts off pretty slow, but it gives much space for the characters to develop their respective story. Some may say argue that the overall plot line of the film resembles director Mike Flanagan‘s Hush a lot in the sense that it is a home invasion psychological horror film and the homeowner is physically impaired. In the excellent Hush, the female victim is a deaf mute, while here we get a blind man. But mark this, the similarities end there. Hush is a straight up thriller and we can easily root for the victim and celebrate her clever one-ups against the psychopath. In this film we don’t get that luxury and our sympathies for each character will sway across the board. There is an air of unpredictability permeating throughout the film and the tension slowly rams up to dizzying hair-pulling levels. There are some inventive scenes that press the “genre refresh” button and if you have been watching as many of these genre flicks as I have, that is something quite rare. What makes this film even greater is that Fede Alvarez, the director of the Evil Dead remake, delivers only 4 major characters on the screen if you don’t count the feral dog. Once the three amateur thieves step inside the shadowy house, that’s when it is fueled by old-school suspense. It’s very realistic from the moment they break into that blind man’s house, asking from the perspective of how, why and what. The discreet environment can make someone’s heart beating so fast. Using a very simple, though well planned, tactics our main cast of three moves around the dark corridors in hopes of escaping with their lives. Many of the audience cringed with the creak of a rogue floor board, waiting for the military man to appear and hunt his prey. One doesn’t realize how silent things are until that sudden sound effect pops out. Yes, the presentation certainly gives you the suspense you are craving, but that’s not the only thing they did right. In terms of plot, horror films often have quality components, but as a whole are mundane, unoriginal, and formulaic. This film is very similar to many films, but stands out for the plot twists thrown into the mix. You can get some of these twists from the trailers, however our screenplay writers dropped a few bombs into the mix that take the story down a new road. These surprises keep things fresh and add more urgency to the moment to further bring the thrills you sought with the trailer. And even better its presented at a quick pace that adds more energy to the scenes and a since of adventure that you often miss in horrors. It all feels like a visual version of the most dangerous game and doesn’t dawdle to deliver the good stuff. The atmosphere throughout most of the film is eerily silent, due to the characters having to remain as silent as possible while trapped.

With that silence, we’re set to see multiple situations where tension is the only thing that comes to the audiences’ mind. There are countless scenes where it gets intensely tension – filled, and it keeps us on the ends of our seats, and intrigued. The film also has a very eerie, dark – like setting as it progresses, only boosting to extreme heights on the tension level. Brilliantly effective music score accompanies the terrifying Antebellum-looking house, mimicking the pounding heartbeat in one’s ears during a frightening situation as that, and the situation quickly goes from bad to terrifying, as the blind old man fights back, quite viciously, even more ferociously than his guard dog. There were several parts of the film where I was convinced we were nearing the end, only to be grabbed by the throat and dragged back in. Another thing that this film does so well that other films fail at is that they play with the idea of who the hero and the villain is. You’ll find yourself switching sides throughout the film, I did a few times. Nobody is the hero here (Alex is the closest you get and even he’s not completely good) and all the characters have twisted and selfish motivations. I prefer main characters who aren’t saints; they’re easier to identify with that way. It can be hard to do that but this film strikes that balance and I enjoyed it that much more for it. The cinematography is amazing as well. Cinematographer Pedro Luque shot the film to appear like one continuous take and the result is truly unique. He didn’t disappoint here either with some great tracking shots and an unforgettable chase scene in the basement. The film does begin to go off the rails in the final scenes, and ultimately goes on one scene too long, but this is still a first class, top tier horror/ thriller, and it, along with this year’s earlier Green Room, gives me renewed hope for the horror genre. I am genuinely thrilled by new horror films using an actual, physical villain, rather than more ghost stories and demonic possessions, which I am thoroughly, incredibly bored with, well unless writer/director/producer James Wan is involved. The best character here is definitely The Blind Man played devilishly well by Stephen Lang. His dialogue is very spare but when it comes it will send a shiver down your spine. He is feral, doesn’t listen to desperate cries of mercy and is a force of primal nature. Being blind means naught to him because he knows the lay of his house like the back of his massive hand. The battleground is his playground. You can go in but you can’t get out. At a certain point we discover a sickening secret about him and it is such an uncomfortable eye-popping moment. But yet it is a powerful scene because I started to pity his heartbreaking desperation. Lang has brought his A game and it is a character that will haunt me for a long time. I haven’t seen Jane Levy since the Evil Dead film but she was great. It wasn’t always easy to like her character but her performance was always good. Dylan Minnette worked well as the conscience of the group and despite the fact his character was a jerk Daniel Zovatto was still likable as Money. So is the hype for this film real? Yes; it, by no means is the “Scariest film” out there, but is it unique? And does it set itself away from the typical horror film scene? Absolutely! This, for sure is one of the best horror films of 2016. This, I’d say is worthy of the top five films, even. On the whole, ‘Don’t Breathe’ is a thrilling, exciting, well paced, well acted and a very enjoyable film which deserves all the hype it is receiving.