{"id":8997,"date":"2024-11-27T13:26:56","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T18:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8997"},"modified":"2024-11-27T13:26:56","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T18:26:56","slug":"dont-breathe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/27\/dont-breathe\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Breathe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Don\u2019t Breathe <\/strong>(2016)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screen Gems\/Horror-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (terror, violence, disturbing content, language including sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Fede Alvarez\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Roque Banos\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Pedro Luque\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 26, 2016 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto, Stephen Lang, Emma Bercovici, Christian Zagia, Katia Bokor, Sergej Onopko, Jane Graves.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $89.2M (US)\/$157.1M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Who says horror films aren\u2019t educational? We can learn a lot from them. In the 70s\/early 80s, they taught audiences what not to do in scary situations. We learned not to open the door or window, look in the basement, answer the phone, go in the house or be afraid of the dark. Such rules of the genre are always preceded by the word \u201cdon\u2019t\u201d leading to great titles like Don\u2019t Open the Door, Don\u2019t Open the Window, Don\u2019t Look in the Basement, Don\u2019t Answer the Phone, Don\u2019t Go in the House and Don\u2019t Be Afraid of the Dark. If nothing else, these titles look great on marquees and ads promoting triple features at grindhouse theaters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s been a while since somebody made a \u201cDon\u2019t\u201d horror flick (the 2010 remake of Don\u2019t Be Afraid of the Dark notwithstanding). As such, the trailer for Don\u2019t Breathe<\/strong> immediately caught my attention. My anticipation grew when I learned it was directed and co-written by Fede Alvarez, the man behind the Evil Dead remake three years back, one of the very few horror remakes that\u2019s actually any good. I had concerns that it was being released the last weekend in August but kept my fingers crossed. It\u2019s not inconceivable a good movie might come out amidst all the crap that studios traditionally dump in theaters this time of year. My optimism, for a change, paid off. Don\u2019t Breathe<\/strong> is one of the better horror movies I\u2019ve seen these past few years.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A trio of young burglars- Rocky (Evil Dead star Levy), her tough-guy boyfriend Money (Zovatto, It Follows) and Alex (Minnette, Goosebumps), a nice guy who\u2019d like to be her boyfriend- get more than they bargained for when they break into home of a blind Gulf War vet (Lang, Avatar) who\u2019s supposedly sitting on a large pile of cash. It\u2019s a settlement from the wealthy family of the girl who avoided jail after killing his daughter in a car accident. Just because the guy is blind doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s helpless. On the contrary, he\u2019s paranoid, unhinged and violent. Upon realizing he\u2019s not alone, the man quickly disarms and kills Money, leaving Rocky and Alex to find the money and get out without alerting him to their presence. Naturally, that\u2019s NOT how it goes down.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Instead of a bloodbath, Alvarez relies on suspense and claustrophobia (and one crazy, unexpected twist) to drive Don\u2019t Breathe<\/strong>. The movie is set almost entirely in the vet\u2019s house on a street with no neighbors adding a sense of isolation. Alvarez makes maximum use of this single location. Every room, floor and ventilation duct transforms the house into a dark labyrinth\/fortress from which there is no escape. The \u201cvictim\u201d becomes the predator hunting his prey in an environment in which he has the advantage. He\u2019s used to navigating in the dark; the thieves are not.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of the movie\u2019s most clever touches is how it toys with the audience\u2019s loyalties. Theoretically, you should be rooting for the blind guy and jeering at the young punks trying to rob a blind war vet. Alvarez starts by providing motive for the robbery. Rocky wants to move to California with her little sister (Bercovici) to escape their abusive mother (Bokor) and her no-good bum of a live-in boyfriend (Onopko). It may be morally wrong to steal, but in this instance it\u2019s for the right reason. Once we learn what\u2019s really going on in that house, Rocky becomes the heroine while the blind guy is turned into a monster. It helps that cinematographer Pedro Luque usually shoots Lang from low angles.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Levy is quite good in Don\u2019t Breathe<\/strong>. Her character is also the only one of the thieves to get any form of development. We don\u2019t learn much about Money and Alex beyond their identities of boyfriend and admirer respectively. The two actors do well with what little they\u2019re given to work with. Lang is terrific as the victim-turned-victimizer. There\u2019s nothing one-dimensional about his performance either. We come to understand his reasons for making certain choices and doing the things he does. Neither he nor Rocky are painted in purely black-and-white terms. They\u2019re different shades of gray.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Don\u2019t Breathe<\/strong> has a few solid \u201cBOO!\u201d moments. At times, it can be terrifying like when the thieves find themselves facing the blind man\u2019s vicious guide\/guard dog*. The scene in the basement is particularly good. The climax is also quite good even if it does go on a little bit longer than it needs to. Alvarez makes great use of the movie\u2019s Detroit setting, a bleak and depressing town filled with empty homes and shattered dreams. Don\u2019t Breathe<\/strong> runs a lean 88 minutes which keeps the story taut and tight. It\u2019s well-constructed and expertly filmed. It doesn\u2019t redefine the genre, but it does breathe new life into it. I can only hope we\u2019ll see more good \u201cDon\u2019t\u201d flicks in the near future.\"\"<\/p>\n

*= The dog doesn\u2019t die.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t Breathe (2016)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screen Gems\/Horror-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (terror, violence, disturbing content, language including sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Fede Alvarez\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Roque Banos\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Pedro Luque\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 26, 2016 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto, Stephen Lang, Emma Bercovici, Christian Zagia, Katia Bokor, Sergej […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Dont-Breathe-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8997"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9353,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8997\/revisions\/9353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}