Don't Breathe
Money: "Just cause he's blind don't mean he's a saint, bro."
Don't
Breathe is directed by Fede Alvarez (Evil
Dead 2013 remake) and stars Jane Levy as Rocky, Dylan Minnette as Alex,
Daniel Zovatto as Money, and Stephen Lang as The Blind Man.
So Kevin Federline, the girl covered in blood in Evil Dead, the older brother who couldn't keep an eye on his sister in Prisoners, and the bad guy from Avatar take up the majority of the screen time?...Sounds pretty cool!
Alex, Rocky, and Money are three friends
that rob houses to steal jewelry or small valuable objects to make some money
on the side. They plan to go to California when they have a lead about a blind
veteran sitting on a great deal of cash in his house. Soon after they find out,
the three thieves enter his home. However, with tense and sometimes even disturbing
events, these friends learn that they messed with the wrong man and he'll do
anything he is remotely capable of to keep his money and his secrets from
leaving the house.
"........" is what a lot of the
audience was saying in my theater while watching this movie. There were those
occasional bursts of laughter when everyone yelled in fright at the same time,
but they were laughing because the moment of fear got everyone. I'm seriously
in shock at how good this movie is. I mean, I saw the trailer and I immediately
set my timer to the date it was going to be released because the trailer has
all the signals of originality. What I'm shocked by, is that Don't Breathe exceed my expectations in
a landslide. I'm not even joking when I say that I was curling my fingers and
toes (I could also feel my intestines moving around in discomfort) because of
how tense the moments of action and the moments in between were. It's so
refreshing to see that there aren't any of those clichéd jump scares,
"don't go in there, you idiot!" scenes, or characters that aren't
interesting, but you kind of have to root for them because they're the main
characters. The jump scares in Don't
Breathe work because they build up the tension and the work with the
characters point of view. The movements of characters into rooms or opening
doors are feel like real choices that I or you could actually make in this sort
of situation, and the characters are actually sort of complicated, if you think
about it. Sometimes you root for the blind man, sometimes you root for the
thieves. The all have their believable backgrounds, but none of them are uninteresting.
Really though, Don't Breathe is a
mind blowing to me. I thought I had seen it all, in terms of incorporating new
elements in a horror/thriller film. I'm totally relieved that there are good
people out there making good films for people to enjoy.
As all good horror movies go, the audience
should feel tense and uncomfortable for the majority of the film. They should
feel scared like they're actually in the movie; attached to the film in some
way. Don't Breathe really brings out
the nervousness in a person, at least for me it did. The title itself is a good
example of living up to its name. For the entire film after the first 15 or 20
minutes, I was squirming in my seat trying not to breathe (as if I was actually
in the movie). Every scene built up tension to the next scene, then to next
one, then to the next one. I honestly can't say I wasn't engaged or didn't have
clammy hands in any part of the film. I was f***ing anxious! A good amount of
that has to do with the direction and the writing of Don't Breathe. There is one particular scene (also partly seen in
the trailer) that has two characters, Alex and Rocky, stumbling on top of
objects in a basement with the lights off. The two actors wore contact lenses
that restricted their eyesight greatly. This is what I think should be done for
all movies: going as deep as possible to be put in the exact situation as their
characters. I could feel the tension of the actors in that scene, as I'm sure
they felt. That reminds me to give praise to the camera work. All of the shots in Don't Breathe felt genuine. What I mean by that is that it adds to the atmosphere of almost being there with lots of one-shot scenes. I think this is as close as you can get to handheld/found footage films. This on top of all the other nail biting moments in Don't Breathe make this film a modern
horror classic.
Don't
Breathe has its faults in the way it ends. I wouldn't say it's a bad
ending. I kind of like how it chose to go with its twist ending, but there are
about two or so endings it could've taken. It dragged on a bit too long with
getting to the credits. I am a little upset and disappointed about that because
it could've been a bit shorter, but with a short 1 hour and 28 minutes as its
running time, there wasn't much the film could've done to prevent that. It's
unfortunate because we can't really have a movie be like 50 minutes and we
really can't have it be a long ass 2 hours. It's the risk a film, especially a
horror film, takes when it seems to be great in all the ways imaginable, but
the flaw is in how it chooses its ending because of running time. I don't want
to blame it solely on how the writers choice to extend the film to make it a
bit longer because I really can't see any other way around it. I'm just glad Don't Breathe didn't drag on for as long
as it could have. It did what it had to do to please the audience and critics.
Plus, the ending that was chosen isn't as bad as I'm making it out to be. I'm
really just saying that I thought the movie was over at one point when it
actually wasn't.
All in all, I am so pleased that my
expectations were exceeded. Don't Breathe
is a white-knuckling film that leaves you guessing where the younger characters
will hide or run from a blind man trying to kill them. It's original as hell and
therefore a film that needs to be seen by people who are always complaining
that Hollywood isn't making good and original films anymore. All you need to
remember is that you shouldn't mess with people who you think are easy targets
because it may turn out that they can kick your ass and stab you with gardening
scissors...that just took a turn for the dark. Sorry. Don't Breathe is dark in every sense of the word, anyways. Go see
it!
4.5/5
- Original idea
- Tense and nail-biting as hell
- Camera work
- Dragged out ending
Don't Breathe is rated R for terror, violence, disturbing content,
and language including sexual references
Click here to watch the trailer
Don't Breathe is in theaters everywhere now
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