Don't Breathe

[03]

A group of friends break into the house of a wealthy blind man, thinking they'll get away with the perfect heist. They're wrong.
Director: Fede Alvarez
Writers: Fede Alvarez, Rodo Sayagues
Stars: Jane Levy, Stephen Lang, Dylan Minnette



very excited. reminds me a lot of green room, for some reason.
has anyone seen this yet?

[polkablues]

I know someone who saw this at Comicon and absolutely raved about it. So I was already hyped for it, and the trailer (which probably gives away too much) only got me more so. I definitely feel the Green Room comparison.

[ElPandaRoyal]

Had never heard of this until I saw the trailer this week ahead of The Shallows. The trailer is really effective, and the only downside is that this seems like the kind of movie to watch without knowing anything about it.

[03]

i think my expectations were too high for this.
i mean, i enjoyed it, but the acting was TERRIBLE.
it was pretty intense, but it wasnt nearly as violent as i expected it to be.
the blind guys voice is one of the most confusing and disturbing things i've ever heard.
it's a good watch, but it is definitely no green room.

[RegularKarate]

it is definitely no green room.

Worth watching once it hits NetFlix and there's nothing else on, but ohmygod this thing is just SO STUPID.
No character is likeable and no choice really makes much sense. I'll avoid spoilers for now because there is plot point avoided in the trailers, but this thing is ten pounds of dumb.

[ElPandaRoyal]

This was one of the best times I had in a theater this year. Alvarez was great at establishing the space where the action was going to take place and used his camera to great effect. The big problem with horror these days (and with most action movies) is that people overly rely on cuts and noise to give the impression that something is happening, and this was particularly quiet and the some of the shots breathed perfectly for me. The final minutes are probably too slasher-y (I never really liked the whole "is he/she/it dead already? are we safe? oh no! here they come again" kind of thing) but not enough to bother me anyway. Liked it a lot.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Agreed that Green Room is several levels superior to this. Not really complaining, though. It was basically what I expected.

The acting was fine, I think. The weak spot is the writing. Includes your average handful of dumb tropes, which feel at odds with the great visual storytelling.

[polkablues]

Yeah, unlike Green Room, this movie really had no point of view to sustain itself. It was technically well made, Alvarez certainly knows how the mechanics of horror filmmaking work, but overall it felt a bit like a waste of a good premise. I think Intruders is a much more interesting version of what's essentially the same story.

[modage]

Funny you say that because I essentially said the opposite a few years ago in my Evil Dead review for the Playlist.

During the Q&A at SXSW someone asked Alvarez why he felt it was okay to break the 180 degree line in the film, to which he responded that it hadn’t really occurred to him, and you can see this kind of sloppiness throughout the film. He didn’t set out to break the rules, he just didn’t really understand them in the first place. On a smaller debut he could’ve worked out some of these kinks out before transitioning onto a larger effort, but here his inexperience is glaring. Horror is tension and release, anticipation and delivery, and despite throwing 100,000 gallons of blood on the screen, Alvarez doesn’t seem to grasp these most basic fundamentals. Instead his film plays as a series of scenes where intense “stuff happens” and at times it’s disgusting but never scary or fun.

But man, what a difference a film makes. I really really liked Don't Breathe too. And agree he really seems to have locked into something here. Almost like a mini-Fincher (blend Panic Room and Dragon Tattoo). It may be a rung down from Green Room but what isn't? One of my favorite studio films this year and a huge surprise for me personally after Evil Dead.