Review of Don't Breathe (2016) by James F — 24 Sep 2016

I walked in to this movie "blind". I had only seen the title and brief description of the movie. I had avoided all trailers because initially this movie did not grab my attention. I admit I entered this movie with low expectations. But I left my local cinema with praise.

Directed by "Fede Alvarez" Don't Breathe smartly plays with it's simple premise to give us 88 minutes of tension, supspense, spectacular acting and more twists and turns than M, Night Shamalan Go Karting.

The first thing I want to bring attention to is the use of sound. Oh my goodness. The sound mixing was cleverly engineered the be from the perspective of the blind man (Stephan Lang). This movie cleverly took the audience through the thought process of a blind man and how he perceives the world through all other senses.

Another thing I want to bring attention to is the clever use of foreshadowing. Throughout the beginning of the film there is a continuous shot through the blind man's house where key points that will appear later in the film are hinted at.

The acting from the two young actors playing Alex (Dylan Minette) and Rocky (Jane Levy) were impressive in this film but they were completely over shadowed by Stephan Lang's acting ability as the antagonist.

However, after I left the cinema and came home. It really let me think the film through completely and I do admit this film is not perfect. For example, earlier in this review I explain that they cleverly explain the perspective of the blind man through the use of sound. But the film suddenly shifts to the perspective of the other characters with no warning. This often showed the film as quite messy. Also, tension was successfully created but there were so many instances of. "Wow, they've made it. They are out!" And then there's suddenly a new obstacle . And this was entertaining for the first couple of times but towards the end it just got over used and boring.

In conclusion, Dont Breathe is a wonderful film including the use of spectacular sound mixing as well as an impressive cast. The run time for this film is perfect and the film knew where it stood and to not overstay it's welcome which kept the premise fresh.