Despite what the title says, definitely BREATHE during this movie. You’ll need to because it’s scary as hell! A white-knuckler from pretty much the first second to the last. Oh my God. If you’ve seen the trailer then you know it’s about three extremely attractive, amateurish young hoodlums who think knocking over a blind man for cash is gonna be easy until they realize they’ve miscalculated their mark. But there’s more. A lot more.
Don’t Breathe doesn’t have to resort to false-frights or having people pop out of nowhere for no reason to scare you. Rather, the film is kind of Hitchcockian in that the viewer is aware of much more than the story’s characters as the scenes move forward. At one point the “old man” (Steven Lang) manages to cut the lights in order to level the odds against his intruders. The director uses night-vision to allow us to be the only ones with “sight” during one of the more intense chase sequences. Very, very intense. But, as I mentioned, the trailer puts us wise to all of this before we enter the theater. What it doesn’t prepare us for is the second half of the movie which goes in another direction altogether. I’m not going to spoil it but, let’s just say, it involves a vicious dog and a turkey baster filled with semen–yeah, it ain’t for kids. However, it doesn’t devolve into merely violence-porn either.
It also has three probably-gonna-be-stars in it as well. Dylan Minnette and Jane Levy are the kids that are good enough to know better, and Daniel Zovatto plays the guy with trouble in his blood. Each has that special spark belonging to future showbiz celebrities. And we’re going to get to see Steven Lang in the next three Avatar films, should they ever really happen.
Don’t Breathe isn’t for everyone. It’s bound to make most audience members squirm and cringe during the perfect running time of 88 minutes. Just enough, I was exhausted by the end. I say go out and catch this surprise hit if you have any inclination whatsoever.
(Loudinni specializes in movie reviews under 500 words, sans spoilers.)
