Starring
Jane Levy, Stephen Lang, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto, Directed by
Fede Alvarez. (2016, 88 min).
In
a year that's seen some pretty decent high-profile horror films for a change, Don't Breathe is
arguably the best of the bunch. Scary, smart, suspenseful and
unpredictable, it's everything a good fright flick should be.
Rocky
(Jane Levy), Alex (Dylan Minnette) and Money (Daniel Zovatto) are
three brash young burglars who regularly break into houses and fence the
valuables for cash. Since Alex's dad owns the company which
has installed the security systems for these homes, getting in and out is
easy. Their next target to too enticing to resist: an old, blind war
veteran (Stephen Lang) who lives in a run-down house in an abandoned
neighborhood and apparently has hundreds of thousands in cash
stashed there.
Breaking
in is easy. Getting back out, however, turns into a fight for their
lives because the blind man isn't nearly as helpless as they assumed.
Not only is he heavily armed, his house is fortified to make it
almost escape proof...for good reason; in addition to being slightly
south of sanity, he's got some dark secrets locked away in his house.
To elaborate would be giving away some of the film's greatest
surprises, but even horror fans who think they've seen it all might be occasionally blindsided. Best of all, these sometimes unnerving plot
twists are never gratuitous, making total sense within the context of
the story.
 |
| "Eeew...old man smell." |
Speaking
of context, Don't Breathe's greatest asset may be its characters. The
three robbers are pretty dumb, but not dumbly written. Rocky may be the
so-called 'hero', but she is committing serious crimes for personal
gain (though her motivation turns out to be understandable). Conversely, while the old man is a
formidable and terrifying villain, we're provided enough exposition
that we sort-of empathize with him, even though he's clearly a dangerous
psychotic. The fact every character is morally ambiguous at-best is a
nice touch that helps raise Don't Breathe above the usual horror fodder.
This
is director Fede Alvarez' second solid horror film in a row, the
first being his blood-soaked remake of Evil Dead. He
demonstrates he's no one trick pony with this film by going the
opposite route, placing atmosphere, narrative and tightly-wound suspense
above gore and special effects. And it's too bad they don't ever
recognize the horror genre at the Oscars, because Lang's
menacing-yet-sympathetic performance is at-least worth a Supporting
Actor nod (which is all the more impressive when you consider how
little dialogue his character actually has).
With
it's unique premise, memorable villain, claustrophobic atmosphere and
clever twists, Don't Breathe manages to breathe some new life into
what could have been just another tired retread of an old formula, making it a must-own for horror fans. Here's hoping Alverez quits
while he's ahead, abandons his proposed idea for a sequel and moves
on to something new, because attempting to turn a nifty little idea like this into a franchise is just begging for diminishing returns.
EXTRA
KIBBLES:
FEATURETTES:
“No
Escape”
“Creating
the Creepy House”
“Meet
the Cast”
“Man
in the Dark”
“The
Sounds of Horror”
DELETED
SCENES (with commentary)
AUDIO
COMMENTARY – by Alvarez, co-writer Rodo Sayagues & Stephen Lang
DIGITAL
COPY
KITTY CONSENSUS:
MEE-OW! THE BEST HORROR FILM OF THE YEAR.
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