Josh Keown | Night Terror Novels 🧛🏻♂️’s review published on Letterboxd:
"Just cause he's blind don't mean he's a fucking saint, bro."
- Money (Daniel Zovatto)
Don't Breathe.
I didn't.
I won't say much plot wise, as this really is one of those films best gone into completely blind. Instead, It'd be better to analyze the filmic devices and how effectively they are employed.
Sound is, and has always been, a crucial element of the horror genre. Don't Breathe understands this, and what's more, knows how to execute it effectively. However, as excellent as the music and scoring is, ironically it is the film's fantastic manipulation of silence that really shines. I felt as though I was in that house with them, listening attentively for every slight sound in abject anticipation.
The cinematography is fantastic too, every shot is well thought out. As a British guy, I don't know Detroit from anything other than the internet and word of mouth, but can say that it is almost always referred to in the same manner that Gandalf refers to Mount Doom or Mufasa to the Shadowy Place; a grim, oppressive land of hopelessness and terror (sorry if you live in Detroit). Alvarez doesn't really do anything to help this image, offering a suitably depressingly gritty interpretation of a depressingly gritty setting for a depressingly gritty film.
Much of Don't Breathe's impact and success was riding on the performances of the two leads, Jane Levy and Stephen Lang, and both prove themselves more than worthy of their respective roles. Levy brings the same disarming likeability to her character as she did in her previous collaboration with Alvarez on the Evil Dead (2013), whilst Stephen Lang is impressively restrained as a character a world away from the ham-fisted beefcake he portrayed in James Sham-eron's Avatar (but I'll leave my views on that film for another day, can't be sounding too much like a contrarian hipster). Everything just works so well. I'd even say Don't Breathe was better than Wait Until Dark.
Fede Alvarez has real potential to cement himself as a modern genre master if he continues producing quality films like his Evil Dead reboot and Don't Breathe. I think it really speaks volumes of a director's talent when one is able to effortlessly transition from gore to suspense in the blink of an eye – a talent Alvarez seems to have nailed down already – and I'm really eager to see what he offers in the future.
VERDICT; The title Don't Breathe appears to be as much a command to the viewer as it is to the cast of the film. Trust me, you Won't Breathe. It's been a fair while since the end credits rolled and I don't think I have yet.
In fact, I think I died of asphyxiation about an hour and ten minutes ago. Shit.
4.5/5 or 9/10