Review of Don't Breathe (2016) by Jry69 — 30 Aug 2016

"Don't Breathe" was actually one of the most surprising movies for me this year. When I originally saw the previews, I thought this looked like a gimmicky movie that wouldn't amount to much. And while I was sort of right with the gimmicky part, the movie overall is a tense experience that many people will enjoy. However, the movie fails in certain aspects that I just can't get over.

The story is rather simple: three friends go around robbing houses to get money. Our main character, Rocky, and her boyfriend, Money, are trying to get money to leave Detroit and move to California. Their friend Alex helps them by getting the keys to the houses since his dad works for a real estate company. One day, Money gets a tip that an old blind man has a large settlement in his home, so they decide to rob him thinking it will be an easy score. This of course starts our movie experience as the old blind man is more capable than we think he is. Before I get into my complains, let me tell you what this movie gets right.

By far the best part of this movie is the atmosphere. At first I thought the setting of just the house would get boring, but it actually added to the feeling of claustrophobia in the film. Each scene with the blind man and the main characters is tense and heart pounding, especially later in the film. There's some great sequences where the blind man will be chasing or hunting down the robbers that makes your heart pound.

The writing too is very solid and believable, at least for the main characters. Some characters like Rocky's mom and her boyfriend Money have lines that feel somewhat cliché and forced. However, the main trio of characters (that being Alex, Rocky, and the blind man) have great dialogue and interactions with each other that feels believable.

Cinematography is also solid overall. While the film doesn't take many risks with it's cinematography, it still helps add to that overall tense and scary feel that the movie is going for.

Where the movie start to fall apart for me is the overall story and twists. I won't spoil them here, but the movie does awful with the suspension of disbelief. Theres moments where you'll say "oh they're dead" only for the character to get up and start running as if nothing happened at all.

But by far the biggest complaint I have with the film was the way in which they try to make you dislike the old blind man. See, when thinking about the concept as face value (that being three people robbing a blind man), you wouldn't really feel much sorrow for the three robbers as what they're doing is an awful thing. However, the film does several things to make you afraid and dislike the blind man. Now I won't spoil it here, but I will say that these twists felt forced. You could tell that the writer knew that they had to make the blind man unlikeable, so they threw these twists in there to make him so.

In summary, "Don't Breathe" is not a bad movie. Not at all. But the movie has fundamental problems with it's story and plot that I just couldn't really see myself watching it again. While it does have good acting, solid dialogue and good cinematography, the ridiculous suspension of disbelief and messy twists hold this movie back from being the next great horror film.