Review of Don't Breathe (2016) by Gerardistheway — 26 Aug 2016

This film had an interesting premise, but much like "Suicide Squad" I was afraid that they weren't going to do much with it and deliver a bland, run-of-the-mill horror movie. Fede Alvarez, director of the 2013 "Evil Dead" remake, put all my fears to rest.

Rocky (Jane Levy), Alex (Dylan Minnette), and Money (Daniel Zovatto) are Detroit teenagers who spend their days pulling off heists at houses protected by the security company Alex's dad works for; for Rocky, she is trying to make enough money to run away to California with her younger sister to escape their neglectful and abusive mother. One robbery doesn't net nearly as much profit as they had hoped, so Money devises a new scheme: rob the home of a blind Iraq War veteran (Stephen Lang) who received a quarter-million dollar settlement from a rich family after one of its members accidentally killed his only daughter. One problem with this, though...The old guy is severely underestimated and is not nearly as defenseless as he seems, and soon the thieves find themselves locked in a life-threatening struggle to escape the house before they end up victims of their stupid decision.

Aside from the target of this little robbery, the character development in the story isn't much to speak of. Alex and Money are given no traits that set them apart from typical horror movie guys: the former is the concerned, brains-of-the-operation friend trying to be more than a friend, and the latter is the tough-guy BF who thinks life's problems can be solved with a Beretta 9mm (oh, the irony). The same could be said for Rocky, although we're given more of an explanation as to her reasons for committing these crimes than we are for the others (Money we can automatically assume greed, but why Alex is involved is beyond me) and thus sympathize with her a bit more. Despite this, one thing I like about both our heroes(?) is--and stick with me here, people, this is gonna be a shocker--is that for the most part, THEY MAKE RATIONAL DECISIONS. God, how long has it been since a horror movie has done that? Too long, that's the answer. Lang, who came to international attention for playing the douchey Army guy in "Avatar", gets what is undoubtedly the most interesting character in the movie, and his moral ambiguity will make you wanna both hate him and root for him at the same time. Indeed, his seems like the more sympathetic character throughout most of the film, until a dark secret is revealed and he dips into more villainous territory.

The cinematography, which so often in modern horror movies relies on shaky, choppily edited filming to produce scares, is beautifully clean, which a film like this almost demands. Without a clear view of the predicament each character is facing, it's hard to follow the action and know exactly what has happened, but once again Alvarez proves himself above the level of the usual modern-day horror writer/director and carefully constructs the house so that everything has its place, as if he were drafting its architectural design rather than setting a home invasion thriller inside of it. The sequence among the shelves in the basement is easily one of my favorites within modern horror films, as the facial expressions of the actors perfectly capture the essence of being trapped in the dark with a man who is neither frightened nor affected by it.

The performances of the cast are phenomenal, particularly Minnette, Lang, and Levy (the latter previously worked with Alvarez in his "Evil Dead" remake); as the would-be robbers try to evade the deadly octogenarian and learn the dark truth behind the things that happen in his house, the fight to escape and survive becomes all the more desperate and all the more engrossing. Minnette, with what little he has to work with in terms of character, manages to make Alex likable to the point that we hope he also survives, and what more could a horror movie character ask for? Lang at once makes his character sadly sympathetic and utterly disturbing and terrifying, and his attitude towards the world, the robbers, and anything/anyone else that crosses his path can be summed up in one line of his: "There is nothing to hold a man back once he realizes there is no God." The Blind Man plays a variety of roles in different places within the film: a grief-stricken wretch, a stoic vigilante defending his home from intruders, a morally indifferent sociopath, and a nihilistic philosopher, depending on what's required of him.

All in all, a lean and mean home invasion movie that will be sure to both entertain and petrify in equal measure. "Scary" isn't the correct descriptor for this film; "tense" is more like it, and there's not a moment once the real action begins that you won't be on the edge of your seat, hanging on to every scene as if it might be your favorite character's last. A great cast, beautiful cinematography and one of the best twists in modern horror make for a ride you won't forget soon.