Movie Review: Don’t Breathe
Ever since it premiered at the South by Southwest Conference and Festivals back in March, “Don’t Breathe” has been the subject of much hype in the months leading up to its release this weekend.
Whenever a movie — especially a horror movie — is hyped to the point that it becomes overbearing, I try not to get too excited in fear that when I finally do get to see it I’ll be disappointed. As hard as I tried to fight it, I had a hard time not giving into the hype for this movie and letting myself get excited over it. I’m going to break the tension right now and tell you not only did “Don’t Breathe” live up to its hype, for me it surpassed it in every way and is easily one of the best horror films to be released in the past two decades.
Tired of life with her abusive mother and jerk boyfriend, Rocky (Jane Levy) is desperate to find a way to leave her life behind and start somewhere new. When her somewhat boyfriend Money (Daniel Zovatto) informs her that he has a way to help her get her hands on $3000, she agrees to help him break into the house of a blind retired war veteran where the money is stashed. Along with their friend Alex (Dylan Minnette), they break into his house one night and are soon confronted by the owner of the house. They quickly discover although he may be blind, he’s still a dangerous individual who sets out to harm them in the worst way possible by locking them in the house and forcing them to fight their way out if they hope to survive until morning.
There were a lot of things that worked in this movie and only a few minor things I wish had been different. For example, the opening of the movie also happens to be the end of the movie which slightly (repeat slightly!) lessened the tension for me because I knew no matter what happened, at some point we were going to get to moment the film opened with and continue on from there so I was never too worried about the fate of one of the characters. I really wish the movie would have continued the plot following the opening scene because I think it would have heightened the tension even more and we would have become more emotionally invested in the outcome of that individual who appears in the opening scene.
The other thing that mainly bothered me was the character of Rocky herself. She starts off incredibly likable and I even felt a lot of sympathy towards her. Even though breaking into someone’s house to steal their money is a crime in itself, you find yourself understanding why she feels like she has to do this and in a way you’re almost rooting for her to find the money and run off with it. As the movie goes on though, she quickly becomes more and more frustrating to watch as she continuously makes mistake after mistake. There are numerous moments in the film where I felt like she could have gotten away a lot sooner had she taken even just one second to stop and think about the actions she’s about to perform. When a movie has you hoping its main character kicks the bucket early so you don’t have to deal with them anymore something is seriously wrong. I’d like to make it a point that I don’t play my disinterest in the character on the actress herself. Levy played the role perfectly and delivered a strong performance that definitely helped set the tension. It’s just a shame she had to play such an annoying character.
On the opposite end though, as annoying as Rocky becomes the movie makes up for it with the character of Alex who was not only my favorite character in the movie but probably also one of my favorite characters I’ve ever seen in a horror movie. He’s charming, funny, and incredibly resourceful. He was easily the only one in the film who seemed to have any sort of brains and actually proved to be useful. I really enjoyed his progression throughout the movie as he starts off as a coward who spends his days daydreaming about Rocky and by the end of the movie he becomes a strong, brave and determined individual willing to do whatever it takes to survive and protect the ones he loves. Minnette has appeared in a handful of films, mainly family oriented ones but he proves in this movie that he is more than capable of taking on more dramatic and adult-like roles. I really hope to start seeing more of him on my movie screens as he has a lot of talent waiting to shine.
Aside from stellar performances, there is a lot in “Don’t Breathe” that make it so fantastic but going into too much detail would run the risk of spoiling it for you. So instead I’ll just cut to what I thought was its strongest factor which is the fact that this movie is actually really scary.
“Don’t Breathe” is the perfect example that less is more. This movie isn’t your typical horror movie where the level of scariness is defined by the number of jump scares that cause you to jump out of your seat. Instead, this movie focuses solely on tension and drawing out the suspense for so long you almost feel like you can’t handle it any longer. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I found myself curling up in my seat and gripping the sides of my seat so tight that by the end of the movie my fingers were sore. There were also numerous moments where I found myself so invested in what was going on that every time a character held their breath, I too was doing the same as if I was in the house myself, trying to hide.
What impressed me most was that when the characters finally enter the house there is very little dialog spoken throughout the movie and it almost becomes a silent film. The tension feeds off the fact that if the characters hope to survive they need to remain absolutely silent and try not to breathe whenever their attacker is in the same room as them. You would think the fact that the villain in this movie is blind would make it slightly less scary but let me tell you if anything, it only makes it scarier. I’d be lying if I said “Don’t Breathe” doesn’t have its fair share of jump scares but fortunately they are well-placed and well-timed so when they do happen, they work like magic and almost make your heart leap out of your chest.
To say any more about this film would only spoil any fun you’ll have while watching this movie so I’ll end my review by simply saying this: the bottom line, “Don’t Breath” is one of the scariest horror movies you’ll ever have the privilege of watching and is the perfect movie to end your summer vacation on. My only advice? Don’t try and watch it alone because the moment it starts, you’ll find yourself regretting every minute you spend in the theater but will be too terrified to stand up and leave.
–keithariaz1@gmail.com