Logic says it can’t be both but in this case it is true. A fantastic early establishing shot tells you virtually everything you need to know about the location, including where all of the potentially risky objects reside. Except it’s not really a surprise.
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The strong elements in “Don’t Breathe” start with Levy’s sharp, astringent performance, though I suspect the story’s right turn into psycho-horror ickiness (which sounds like a sound business decision) may prevent the movie from finding a big audience.
Here’s the set up.
Alex (Dylan Minnette), the mastermind who’s using his dad’s security-company connections to enable the break-ins, has rules about what and how much his group can take. No one is the wiser. It’s a testament to the craft of production designers and camera operators that the movies now so persuasively show us just what it would be like to pick your way through some moldering basement of menace.
Money has his eyes on an old house in a deserted part of town that is probably holding hundreds of thousands of dollars.
While the sight-based conceit offers the opportunity for clever suspense and scares, it’s the starkly realistic setting and all-too-newsworthy themes underpinning the spooky tale that makes the horror of this film so bone-chilling.
In the decay of modern-day Detroit, three young people are in the midst of a carefully planned string of burglaries.
Writer/director Fede Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues have cleverly set up a scenario in which the characters must move with the utmost care, as a creaking floorboard, tinkling glass, or sharp intake of breath could spell their doom.
Fede Alvarez chose to bring back Jane Levy after working with her on Evil Dead, and there should be no complaints from anyone for that decision. Dylan Minnette (Goosebumps) is one of her two pals, and mostly unknown Daniel Sovato is the third member of the trio. Individual scenes such as Alex lying helplessly on a cracking plate-glass window, or a bit that simulates total darkness with a woozy gray look, are handled brilliantly, while Lang plays his part to the hilt. Go to the web for a photo, and you’ll go, “Ah, ha!”
But you’ll nearly certainly find yourself clawing the armrest while you decide whom to root for. And they traffic in a few too many horror-movie clichés – including the ending – for “Don’t Breathe” to ascend to the instant-classic status some have ascribed to it. This is especially true if you know nearly nothing about it before buying a ticket.
You know a studio believes it has a victor on its hands when it screens a horror movie multiple times with one being a full 10 days before the release date.
The plot gets sort of ludicrous by the end right around the time Lang gets to start talking but there were moments at a recent preview where a pin could drop and make more noise than one of the poor burglars trying to do what the movie title demands.
With so many horror movies haunting the silver screen every year, it is refreshing to see a movie like Don’t Breathe added into the mix. So look for a sequel. If the MPAA were a sensible organization, Evil Dead would have easily been rated NC-17 for violence, but they got away with it because the violence is “supernatural” (although there’s nothing supernatural about someone sawing off their own arm with a carving knife). It’s playing at the Carmike 12, the Fairchild Cinemas 12 and Queensgate 12 and at Walla Walla Grand Cinemas.
1 star out of 5. The film is not necessarily a game changer but here are several reasons why Don’t Breathe is a different kind of horror film and is perhaps a must see for moviegoers and horror fans a like.
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3 stars to 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on DVD.
