Don't Breathe

Fede Alvarez, 2016

IMDB

2/5

Don't Breathe has the problems that so many of the horror thrillers have that are churned out these days. Starting off with an unrealistic grouping of people. You have beautiful girl Rocky (Jane Levy) who is supposed to be trailer trash but doesn't look like the product of any trailer park anyone's ever seen before. You have straight clean cut Alex (Dylan Minnette) who it just so happens that his father works at the alarm company so he has the master key to every customers house they rob. Then you have dirtbag kid Money (Daniel Zovatto) with the vulgar mouth who is the romantic interest of the trailer girl. The chemistry on screen matches the believability of the couple. Zovatto was really great in last year's It Follows, but is awfully miscast here. Certainly not his fault. The Money character is just downright annoying and one dimensional.

For a while they are burglarizing homes and staying under a $10K theshold - so that if they get caught they can't be charged with grand larceny. Then they hear about a house owned by a blind man that is rumored to have $300,000 in cash. This money was obtained through a settlement after his daughter was killed in a car accident. They look at this job as their big opportunity, the one that they have been waiting for. The last job. With this money Rocky and Money can go to California together. it's their ticket out of Detroit.

So they descend upon the house. But I had forgotten to mention that the blind man is a decorated army vet. But of course the trio doesn't care. It's not like being in the Army prepares you for any type of combat situation; oh WAIT that's exactly what it does. Oh yeah, and when you are blind all of your other senses are heightened. To the films credit, some of the moments inside the house are tense. Reminiscent of Hitchcock's work. The concept of burglarizing a blind man's home and him putting up a fight is actually quite original and intriguing. Alvarez should get some credit for good direction but some criticism for such a weak script. First off, you are supposed to believe that the only reason Alex is really helping them is because he has a crush on Rocky. Otherwise, there is no single reason he would get involved. He's a normal middle class kid who would have no reason to get mixed up with the other two. This makes Alex less greedy than them, and when things start to turn south he bails on the blind man's house. But he hears gunshots and comes back. How many times are we going to let the hero return to the house in horror movies? It's not much different than running up the stairs. Oh yeah, that happens here too. If you were in a blind man's house and you were trying to disorient him to escape, instead of running couldn't you just throw things all around and confuse him? What also needs to be mentioned is this house is located in a completely abandoned section of Detroit which conveniently creates a situation where there is no police presence. So this takes care of that constant gun shots being fired problem that might draw attention.

Don't Breathe is a disappointment. Last year's It Follows taught us that some creative horror films can come out of nowhere where new things can be done. After seeing all of the positive reviews related to this film I thought this could have been this years It Follows. Boy was I mistaken.



There is a reveal about 3/4 of the way through the film that I have to acknowledge. But this is borderline spoiler material so read on at your own risk.

It Follows

David Robert Mitchell, 2015

3/5

It Follows is one of those films that upon describing it to someone you get a response that sounds something like "that sounds like a stupid idea for a film." "Cant they come up with anything better than that nowadays?". "Sounds like another cheesy horror premise."

In reality, if you were to describe a film that is basically like a ghost STD chasing around the cursed victim, you might spark a lot of interest. Especially with movie snobs. And a film with that premise could easily be a pile of shit in the wrong hands. But fortunately, it's in the right hands here. Mitchell is able to create an interesting film that pays tribute to the genre with a retro late 70's campy feel with fresh touches. High school heartbreak in a crummy horror hipster town. The creepy elements in pursuit of main character Jay Height (Maika Monroe) make an impression. Sort of like in Gregory Hoblit's 1998 film Fallen (that starred Denzel Washington and John Goodman), they can change form. In fact, the film is basically a hybrid creation of Fallen and Romero's Night of the Living Dead. There are a handful of the forms that are bound to be stuck in your brain for a little while. The synthwave score (provided by Disasterpeace) only adds to the tension, and you spend the duration of the film wondering if Jay is going to be able to pass this curse on to another unlucky victim or perish herself.

Mitchell proves that you can still put a creative story on the screen with a limited budget ($2M here) and keep it interesting. The small budget certainly adds to the feel of the movie. A big budget with a ton of CGI would have homogenized the movie to the point it would lose all of it's grittiness. Using the backdrop of the slummy Detroit suburbs only added to the charm of the film. The city itself basically becomes a character here. One of the only complaints is that Mitchell chooses to go in a direction toward the end of the film that seems to pay tribute to Let the Right One In in terms of setting but it doesn't have nearly the same impact. But overall Mitchell manages to make an engaging film with limited resources. Let's just hope the big studios don't get a hold of this and churn out two or three awful sequels.