{"id":8999,"date":"2024-11-27T13:28:56","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T18:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8999"},"modified":"2024-11-27T13:28:56","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T18:28:56","slug":"dont-breathe-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/27\/dont-breathe-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Breathe 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Don\u2019t Breathe 2<\/strong> (2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screen Gems\/Horror-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 98 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence, gruesome images, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Rodo Sayagues\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 13, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Stephen Lang, Brendan Sexton III, Madelyn Grace, Adam Young, Bobby Schoefield, Rocci Williams, Christian Zagia, Steffan Rhodri, Stephanie Arcila, Diaana Babnicova.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $32.7M (US)\/$53.8M (World)<\/p>\n

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

WARNING<\/strong>: This review may contain spoilers about the first movie. If you haven\u2019t seen it and plan to watch it someday, PLEASE READ NO FURTHER. If you do, you do so at your own risk.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What I admired most about the first Don\u2019t Breathe is how it played with the audience\u2019s perception of the protagonist, a blind Gulf War vet played by Stephen Lang (Band of the Hand). Is he a hero or a villain? Initially, he\u2019s the former in defending his home against the three young thieves who break in to rob him. Over the course of the movie, a shocking revelation about the blind guy makes him the latter. Just like that, we switch sides and root for the last thief standing to get away with the loot and her life. I thought it was pretty clever myself.<\/p>\n

\u00a0We go into the sequel Don\u2019t Breathe 2<\/strong> with the knowledge of the Blind Man\u2019s depraved acts from the previous movie. We also know that his \u201cdaughter\u201d Phoenix (Grace in her first feature film) can\u2019t be his daughter. It takes place eight years after the first movie and she\u2019s 11YO. There are a few feasible explanations of this, but knowing what we now know about the man, we\u2019re sure she came to be in his care through illegal means. SPOILER ALERT!<\/strong> It turns out he rescued her from a house fire that supposedly claimed the life of her mother. He claims to be her father, but something isn\u2019t quite kosher.<\/p>\n

\u00a0ANYWAY, \u201cfather and daughter\u201d live in solitude in an isolated house in the bleak suburbs of Detroit. He puts her through rigorous survival training in the surrounding woods. For the most part, he keeps Phoenix confined to their house save for an occasional trip to town with a female friend (Arcila, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels). On one such trip, she\u2019s accosted by a shady-looking character (Sexton, Boys Don\u2019t Cry) in a gas station restroom. Her Rottweiler companion scares him off, but he secretly follows them back to her home with a gang of other scuzzy types. When it gets dark, they kill the dog (BASTARDS!) and quietly sneak into the house with the intention of forcibly removing Phoenix. Naturally, the Blind Man isn\u2019t about to give her up without a fight. And what a fight he puts up!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Co-writer Rodo Sayagues takes over directorial duties from Fede Alvarez with whom he collaborated on both screenplays. He basically pulls a reverse job with Don\u2019t Breathe 2 <\/strong>by having the protagonist go from captor to savior when he tracks the bad guys to an abandoned hotel. That\u2019s when the movie shifts into bloodbath mode. He takes out a number of scumbags with a variety of implements- e.g. hammer, machete and knife. The kid gets into it too, taking out one of the creeps herself. The violence, for the most part, is cool. The only thing I didn\u2019t like was the dog getting killed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plot twist- that is, the Blind Man\u2019s big secret- came as a surprise in Don\u2019t Breathe 1. I didn\u2019t see it coming. There\u2019s a couple of surprise twists in Don\u2019t Breathe 2<\/strong> as well. I didn\u2019t see them specifically, but I was keeping an eye out for something. I knew the abduction wasn\u2019t a random act. The thing that didn\u2019t surprise me was the organ trafficking ring mentioned on a newscast in one scene. I knew it would somehow factor into the plot. Why mention it if it\u2019s not going to come up later? I\u2019ll stop here for fear of revealing things I shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting, what can I say about the acting? Lang is good as The Blind Man whose name is Norman Nordstrom according to Wikipedia. In Don\u2019t Breathe 2<\/strong>, he really plays up the tortured soul part, especially at the end when he laments over the bad things he\u2019s done in life (or two movies). Grace, who I\u2019ve never seen before, is good as Phoenix, a lonely little girl who just wants to play with other kids like a normal 11YO. However, she\u2019s quite the little survivor. There\u2019s an early (mostly silent) sequence where she ducks and dodges the invaders while they search the house. There\u2019s a great scene near the end where she escapes from handcuffs by…. aha, I\u2019ll never tell! The actors playing the scumbags all look the part, especially the blonde guy (Brit actor Young) with the hammer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Atmospheric and suspenseful, Don\u2019t Breathe 2<\/strong> is a worthy follow-up to its predecessor which is only slightly better, a far cry from being a lot better. It\u2019s that rare sequel that doesn\u2019t disappoint. BTW, be sure to stick around for an end credits scene.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t Breathe 2 (2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screen Gems\/Horror-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 98 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence, gruesome images, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Rodo Sayagues\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 13, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Stephen Lang, Brendan Sexton III, Madelyn Grace, Adam Young, Bobby Schoefield, Rocci Williams, Christian Zagia, Steffan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9355,"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-8999","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-2-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\/8999","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=8999"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9358,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8999\/revisions\/9358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}