Movie Review: Screen Gems' Don't Breathe - #DontBreathe

Don't Breathe
Release date: 8/26
MPAA Rating: R
Directed by: Fede Alvarez
Written by: Fede Alvarez & Rodo Sayagues
Starring: Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto and Stephen Lang

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A trio of friends break into the house of a wealthy blind man, thinking they’ll get away with the perfect heist. They’re wrong.

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I don’t know what to say about this week’s horror flick, Don’t Breathe.  It was scary, and not “spooky ghosts aren’t real” kind of scary.  It was the home invasion, “this could actually happen and it could actually happen to you” kind of scary.  I was petrified for most of the movie.

My heart almost leaped out of my mouth five minutes into the story, and I am not sure I ever recovered.  The cast could have been anyone.  This film isn’t about the cast.  It’s about the story.  The story is simple enough. Three hoodlums target a blind man’s home for a burglary heist and most everything goes awry pretty quickly.  The movie plays with traditional notions of heroes and villains.  I could not tell which was which, and just when I thought I knew, it all flipped on me. 

I was a great story.  A very entertaining cat and mouse adventure.  I appreciated that the plot gave up just enough information to get the audience to the next complication.  It was a horror onion of sorts that I didn’t want to peel, but in order to get to the end, I had to keep peeling, and there were new levels of horror at every peeling of the onion.  The film is not overly bloody, but it is graphic. I watched most of the movie through my fingers because I was covering my eyes.  If that wasn’t enough, just when I thought that the story was over, it was not.  

I love a horror film with a good soundtrack.  The music complemented the on-screen horror well. Creepy music galore. I appreciated the entire theater experience for this one because I was forced to look at the screen.  The music sounded great in surround sound. There is no escape when one is sitting in a darkened theater, added to the horror. 

Don’t Breathe scared the bejeezus out of me and I was spent by the time it was over.  It was a great time.  Don’t Breathe opens at a theater near you on Friday, August 26^th.  See it if you dare.