With his previous film, the remake of EVIL DEAD, writer-director Fede Alvarez stuck with the cabin-in-the-woods scenario, inhabited by supernatural creatures, and the result was about as bloody an affair as is possible with an R rating. So it only makes sense that Alvarez would flee in the opposite direction with his new, original film, DON’T BREATHE, if only to challenge himself with a work set in the most rundown section of Detroit, with no other worldly beings, and very little blood. The result is one of the most truly suspenseful movies in recent memory, with all credit due to Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues (who also co-wrote the new EVIL DEAD) for carefully constructing a close quarters that lets us think we know who the bad guy(s) is/are, until we don’t.
Three young punks—Jane Levy (also a part of the EVIL DEAD remake) as Rocky, Dylan Minnette (PRISONERAS, GOOSEBUMPS) as Alex, and Daniel Zovatto (IT FOLLOWS) as Money—have a racket where they rob the few houses worthy of robbing in the Detroit area. They’re looking for one last big score so they can live out their dreams of moving to California. Money has heard of just such a job, involving a hermit-like old man living in a terrible area with no neighbors. Apparently, years earlier, the man’s daughter was killed in a horrific car accident and he’s been sitting on the cash settlement, hidden somewhere in his home.
One of the many clever tricks that Alvarez uses is telegraphing a few key elements in the old man’s house as soon as the kids break in. As the burglars case the house, it serves as a tour of certain doors, a skylight, a particular tool or two, and just gives us the general layout of the ground floor and upstairs (where the old man is sleeping). At some point, we also find out the home’s owner (played with silent intensity by Stephen Lang) is blind, so this gives the criminals added confidence that they can be in and out in no time. What they don’t realize until it’s too late is that The Blind Man is ex-military, knows every corner of his own house, and can lock it up like a fortress, so that no one gets in or out.
There are sequences when the kids are sneaking around the house trying desperately to be quiet, so that the Blind Man (who owns several guns and manages to take another off one of the thieves) can’t tell where they are. And before long, our sympathies, which were easily with the Blind Man as the victim, slowly begin to shift for reasons I won’t go into. Probably the most terrifying moment in the film is when everyone ends up in the basement, which was not scoped out at the beginning, so both the kids and the audience are totally lost, especially when Lang’s character turns off the light and makes it his domain. Lang is truly astonishing in DON’T BREATHE, with almost no dialogue, and such well-timed movement that he completely sells the blindness. His hands are almost touching a wall or ceiling or object just to confirm his position in a space. He hears every creek, every exhalation, and we’re almost convinced he can smell fear.
Alvarez confirms that he is a master of camera movement, as cinematographer Pedro Luque glides through each room, between people, making us feel like another person in the scenario who might get shot or choked if we make too much noise. The Blind Man is shooting to kill, for reasons we think we understand but don’t. The film uses long takes to give it immediacy and a sound design that makes every gunshot sound like a cannon going off and uses silence as a key to building tension. And breaking that silence will almost certainly mean death.
The pacing and reveals of the film are sheer perfection. And just when we think we’ve gotten through all of the shocks and twists, Alvarez and Sayagues unleash even more that are impossible to predict and some might consider truly foul. I’m not sure it was completely necessary to make us look at Lang as something close to evil; I loved the cautionary tale aspect of the crime-gone-wrong scenario plenty. But the final twist is so creepy, it almost seems worth pushing the limits of taste…almost. Also, by giving Rocky more of a motivation than her underdeveloped male counterparts about needing this money, it makes her seem less of a criminal. Again, I’m not sure that’s necessary when all is said and done, but Levy is so strong in the part, it’s genuinely not something I thought much about until after the film was done.
The true measure of DON’T BREATHE’s success is that you’ll find yourself holding your own breath as the film unfolds, especially during the moments when the younger character must be as quiet as possible. I can’t remember the last time I heard an audience (especially in a horror movie) so quiet, and that pleases me considerably. (I’m waiting for the Alamo Drafthouse PSA with Stephen Lang, in which he threatens to wipe out anyone whose cell phone goes off during the movie.) Any movie terrifying enough to influence your air intake is a winner in my book.
