Don’t Breathe works reasonably well for about two thirds of its runtime.
The premise of Fede Alvarez’s Detroit-based horror is quite clever, a stew of familiar ideas thrown into a blender and delivered in a very stylish manner. Don’t Breathe is a film that begs to be summarised in pithy one-liners that bridge movie titles using the dreaded “… with …” In those terms, Don’t Breathe is Home Alone meets Halloween, Wait Until Dark meets The Bling Ring, Panic Room meets Saw. The combinations are infinite, as are the influences. And there is a charm to that.

Firing blind.
The problem comes during the movie’s third act, when the thrills and horror slow down just long enough to flesh out the “monster” at the centre of the film. As it pushes into its climax, Don’t Breathe becomes a lot less intriguing and effective. In those final twenty minutes, Don’t Breathe indulges the baser impulses of the horror genre in a manner that is crass and cheap. Don’t Breathe begins as a series of inventive homages to the best that horror genre has to offer. Unfortunately, it ends as a demonstration of the genre’s worst attributes.

Setting his (gun) sight on them.
The plot of Don’t Breathe hinges on a group of highly organised teenage thieves operating in Detroit. The three young criminals have an effective gimmick; one of their number has a father who works for a security company, granting him access and information to various alarm systems within the city limits. More than that, there is a precision to the way that the team works. They are mindful of the barriers that exist between various classes of offence and operate with tactical efficiency in terms of timing.
There is a certain charm and efficiency to the way that Don’t Breathe uses its opening scenes to convey everything that the audience needs to know about the characters in question. Trashing these fine homes, ringleader Money is reckless and irresponsible. Instructing his team members on the particulars of the security systems, Alex is tightly-wound and detail-orientated. Taking time to try on expensive clothes that she could never afford, Rocky is a striver desperately looking for a way out of her situation.

Don’t make a sound.
Even the film’s plot feels stitched together from a host of disparate elements. The three characters are hoping for one last score, planning a robbery that could earn them three hundred grand and set them up for life. For these characters, it is an opportunity to break out and away from a vision of Detroit that appears post-apocalyptic. Indeed, even the film’s Detroit setting feels like a nod to contemporary horror cinema; films like It Follows, Only Lovers Left Alive and Lost River have turned the city’s economic decay into fodder for more cinematic nightmares.

Reaching out.
Part of the excitement of the premise lies in the ambiguity. “Just because he’s blind doesn’t make him a saint,” Money observes when Alex hesitates at the idea of robbing a blind man. Nevertheless, the movie essentially asks the audience to root for three young home invaders who have targeted a disabled man living in a remote location. Although Don’t Breathe makes its leads sympathetic and keeps their intended victim mostly silent and anonymous, it adds an interesting moral complexity to the film. Yes, the situation is intense, but who is in the right? Is anyone?

Planning to rob him blind.
However, the problems hit like a sledgehammer in the film’s final twenty minutes, when the film does inevitable slow down. Stephen Lang is an imposing presence and an effective monster; as portrayed by Lang, the anonymous blind man seems very much like an implacable foe. However, Don’t Breathe struggles when it decides that it is not enough for the blind veteran to fulfil the narrative role of monster. Once Don’t Breathe decides that it needs the leads’ opponent to become truly and unforgivably monstrous, it commits to that idea in the clumsiest manner possible.

The Lang Goodbye.
This is very disappointing, given the strength and excitement of the first seventy minutes. Don’t Breathe stumbles in the darkness, and loses its way.
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: don't breathe, exploitation, film, horror, Movie, non-review review, review, stephen lang |
How the HELL the blind man find the car