DON’T BREATHE
Horror history has shown that everyone gets a huge kick out of being t rapped i n a very scary house. Hitchcock knew i t. Nicole Kidman i n The Others knew i t. The l andlord of my rotting and possibly haunted rental knows i t. For so l ong the genre has embraced the creaky f l oorboards, the j ump scare i n the bathroom mirror and the notoriously bad j uju of the basement. But never have t hese been harnessed quite l i ke in t he i nstant horror classic Don’t Breathe. Directed by Fede Alvarez of Evil Dead f ame,
Don’t Breathe fl i ps the script on t he genre of home i nvasion t hriller ( think: Panic Room, The
Strangers) t o deliver a shocking ri de straight i nto t he bowels of heart- stopping hell. If t hat sounds l i ke an exaggeration, I can personally vouch t hat my heart has still not returned to a normal rhythm more t han a week after seeing t he fi l m in t he cinema, nor have I been able t o sleep with both eyes completely closed. The plot f ollows a group of young burglars who attempt t o rob an old wealthy blind man, only to f i nd out much too l ate that he i s the l ast
person they would want to disturb in the middle of the night. Instead of having the typical“creep in am ask” arrive at a house and scare the poor tormented victims within, Don’t Breathe turns the victim into the terroriser, the hunters into the prey. That old house that was supposed to be a quick in-and-out job? It’ s hiding a lot more than just bad floral wallpaper.
Without his sight, t he unnamed war veteran ( played by Avatar’s Stephen Lang and credited simply as“The Blind Man ”) is no helpless pensioner but essentially a sensory- heightened killing machine. Lang’s performance is outstanding, with t he gravelly voice of Batman and the ripped body of are tired Superman making for a threatening combo indeed. With the group trapped within his house, windows barred and doors bolted, every step they take runs the risk of a fatal creak, every deep breath or gasp literally the difference between life and death.
Alvarez goes to town exploiting this tension, making the film very light on dialogue and huge on pin-drop silence as The Blind Man stalks the halls trying to find anyone who might be hiding. The film dr edges up an achingly simple terror: the fear of being trapped, with safety being just one barred window away. Jump scares are mixed with a slow- burning sense of dread, t he audience able to fore see 100 terrible outcomes before they happen. As we learn more about the man and the contents within his fortress, things look about as optimistic as a mushroom cloud in front of a sunset.
Channelling the in famous night-vision climax of Silence of the Lambs, one of the most exquisite sequences—you can watch itin the trailer—comes when The Blind Man throws his victims into pitch darkness. Rocky and Alex, played by a sufficiently wide- pupilled Jane Levy and Dylan Minnette, find themselves in the worst Motat tactile dome of all time, trip ping and walking into walls as their predator waits patiently in the dark. If there was ever afilm to make you drop your popcorn and scream “he’s right behind you” like a living cliche, Don’t
Breathe is it. Despite being an exercise in brutal tension, t here are some surprising moments of comedy and cheer. Whether intentional or not, the audience roared with laughter at times, and clapped for a fabulous subversion of the helpless “final girl” trope that hast obese en to be believed. Let’s just say that she is far from a shrieking Marion Crane.
Whether evoking nervous chuckles or silent rasping screams, Don’t Breathe is a wildly entertaining ride throughout, and I feel very confident in calling the best horror film of the year. If you can stomach 88 minutes of almost unrelenting dread, then make this your next latenight movie outing as soon as you can. But, unlike our burglar friends, make sure you have an escape plan, justin case.