Don't Breathe [Blu-ray] [2016]

Despite hearing very good things about Don't Breathe, and loving Fede Alvarez' take on Evil Dead, (on par with Fright Night as my favorite remakes/ reboots,) I put this film aside as being something to check out. My thinking being that, unless you're an absolute hack, you just can't screw up remaking Evil Dead, with the amazing source material, and Don't Breathe appeared to be a relative "paint by numbers" horror trope. There'd be one of a few twists coming that, pardon the pun, we'd see coming, especially if you're a veteran of horror with decades of experience exploring the genre. I couldn't have been more wrong. I regret not seeing this masterpiece oh so much sooner. There's no way to expand upon what you may know from the previews without ruining the twist, but in the off-chance you're unfamiliar with Don't Breathe's premise, here's the rundown. Three youths that are thieves, (two for making money, one to rebel against his father,) catch wind from their fence that an older blind man, (played masterfully by Stephen Lang, proving once again Deadpool made an error not casting him as Cable,) has a fortune in cash at his home. The reason for the fortune? His only child was killed in an auto incident. This creates a moral dilemma for part of our group, as well as humanizes the story, grounding it in tragedy for our viewers through perfect storytelling. As in the previews, what seems like what should be an easy heist has the tables turned on the thieves due to a combination of Lang cutting the power, a realistic portrayal of his hearing being more attuned after years of no sight, and being much more familiar with his surroundings. You'd be right in thinking this sounds like a typical horror film that's been played out numerous times. But, the storytelling is done so well, the acting very good, and the twist/ gimmick SO excellent, that it's miles ahead of anything else this may sound similar to. There's no way to hint at it without lessening its impact when it plays out. Place a pillow in your lap for when your jaw drops. That reveal is boatloads of discomfort, and I'm not one easily triggered; precisely WHY I ran out and bought Don't Breathe directly after seeing it on cable. While not on the same scale as Martyrs, Don't Breathe had me thinking about its twist heavily the rest of the night and days afterwards. If, like me, you chose to skip Don't Breathe because it seemed too familiar, you need to rectify that, and you'd be best served, at its low price, to just add it to your collection from the outset. Evil Dead made me believe Fede Alvarez had potential, but with a foundation already laid down by Sam Raimi, he was just a name to keep an eye on when future movies hit cable or streaming. Don't Breathe has assured me that Fede Alvarez isn't *A* name to watch, he's *THE* name to watch, and you'll see me at the head of the line at the theater for upcoming films, especially if he continues to create original masterpieces like Don't Breathe.

Don't Breathe, the new horror/thriller from director Fede Alvarez (the Evil Dead re-make), opens with a distant shot of what looks to be a deserted street. Only later do we find out this is one of the more run down sections of Detroit where time and humanity have left everything behind that might have once thrived there. As the camera gets closer to the street we can see there is someone walking down the middle of it. The camera continues to zoom in slowly-we can tell that someone is dragging something down the road behind them. A little closer. They are dragging another person. A little closer. It's a girl who is either dead or unconscious-it's difficult to tell and we will remain unsure as the screen then cuts to black. It's a killer opening shot that clearly points to a moment that is to come later in the film, but with its placement at the beginning Alvarez has already enticed his audience to how we might get to this point and whether that shot indicates the end of the line or not. It's a trick that has been used before and will certainly be used again, but every now and then it feels especially inherent to the story being told and Don't Breathe feels like an instance where this isn't only a tool to lure the unsuspecting (or suspecting if you bought a ticket, I mean c'mon) audience member into the intrigue of what exactly is going on, but instead this is a choice that lets those audience members (suspecting or not) know up front that Alvarez means to make you question things, to make you pull your knees up to your chin and grit your teeth because you feel so tense. This isn't simply a hook, but an indication of the type of terror the characters we'll come to know are capable of and this is all accomplished in the first thirty or so seconds so one can only imagine what sitting through ninety minutes of such adept perception of what makes people uncomfortable and afraid might be like. In only his second feature film the Uruguay-born director delivers a horror film that, much like his previous movie, contains itself to an isolated location, but only continues to raise the stakes and use that space in inventive and chilling ways. Save for something of a lackluster middle section where, for a moment, the film feels as if it runs out of both steam and ideas for where exactly to take the story and its characters, the film is a tightly scripted and well-performed fright night that finds its footing well enough to redeem itself and pull the cautious viewers back to the side of rooting for whoever gains the most of their sympathy.

I love a good movie that has you on the edge of your seat almost the entire time, like this one did. They didn't have to waste a huge load of money on unnecessary blood and guts, like in 'Saw' part 2 through whatever ('Saw' part 1 was actually good). I guess they realized that after a while, movie watchers become desensitized to all that needless gore. And once the person realizes that all the movie is, is just blood and guts without a good story, thats when people lose interest. THIS MOVIE, wasn't like that. Of course, at the beginning of basically every movie, there is a learning curve that you must go through to find out who the characters are, why we should side with them, or why we should hate, love, or pity them. Those parts can sometimes seem a little slow, but thats the same with most movies. Not long after we learn who the three main intruders were, we also found out WHY they were doin what they were doin, and why they were going to the old mans house. THATS when it started getting intense, and it stayed that way until a few minutes before the end of the movie. I may have missed my chance to see it at the theatre, but I'm so glad that I bought the blu-ray, because I've seen it twice since I bought it. I feel that they took us back to the old school way of making a horror film, that wasn't a huge waste of money. They kept it thrilling and suspenseful and threw in some death scenes, which is pretty much the essence of a horror film. ...I loved it, and I would recommend it to anyone.

This is a really stacked blu-ray for an excellent film! I love this movie, produced by the great Sam Raimi who brought us great horror films like The Evil Dead. Here, the director's job is done by the terrific Fede Alvarez, who also did The Evil Dead remake. This movie is even better than The Evil Dead remake. The concept is simple but really effective. What if you trapped in a house with a blind Rambo/Jack Bauer-type government agent who wanted to murder you? The three main characters in this film are thieves who try to rob a blind guy, but the blind guy turns out to be the ultimate psycho assassin. The acting is solid and the movie is really scary. You feel really claustrophobic since 85% of the movie takes place inside the blind guy's house. The ending is really surprising and has more twists than you would expect. It keeps you guessing until the very end whether the blind guy will really succeed in killing everyone off. You will not regret watching this movie if you love thrillers or horror movies of any kind. The Blu-Ray is excellent. The picture quality is immaculate and the sound is full and rich. The special features are great, especially the feature length commentary where the director talks about how hard it is to make a movie so scary when it all happens in just one house. Superb!

You're swept up into the world of 3 young thieves whose latest conquest is a blind man--a real pushover, or so they thought. He lives in a deserted block of town with boarded up windows and abandoned homes--reminiscent of the Newark ghetto and Camden slums. Breaking in was the easy part. Getting out will prove impossible. When he realizes he's not alone, the blind man shuts off the main breaker switch so they're in the dark--on equal ground with him. He runs past them with a shotgun that's never empty, and keeps an extra gun under the bed. From the kitchen, the intruders try to locate the cash by breaking into the basement, an odd labyrinth of rooms hiding a disturbing nightmare. They pick padlocks to try to escape, but psycho Army Special Forces finds them and re-locks them all. There are some sick moments after this. Plus, there's a huge vicious dog that they drugged at first to gain entry, but that is now waking up, so that's fun. From there on, buckle up, because it's like a bad dream you can't wake up from.

Can you say, turn the tables? This movie is about three knuckleheads who believe that there is a large amount of money in a house owned by a blind man. So they decide that they should go and retrieve the money for themselves. They are clearly not good people because they intended on stealing something that didn’t belong to them. Each of these people is motivated to steal this money for different reasons. The three people trying to steal the money are not nice people and you kind of feel bad for the blind guy. However, as the knuckleheads invade the blind man’s property, you may or may not feel sorry for him and start feeling sorry for the knuckleheads that have realized they have broken into the4 wrong house. The blind man is not the victim in this movie. I would say this is a movie about an attempted burglary with plenty of suspense and tense situations that will have you on the edge of you seat. Wouldn’t necessarily call it a horror movie, but an excellent thriller for sure.

This is a fairly decent modern horror flick. Although it is rated as “The best American horror film in 20 years,” I wouldn’t bill it quite that far with my raves. It is, cinematically, very well framed and shot. Fast paced. Modern creepy - which is hard to pull off - this is set in a Detroit slum, ala the late 2010’s housing slump. The tension is constant and good. For fans of the tragic hero concept, you may find the antagonist bordering on anti-hero (up to a very definitive point, in this film), but it follows through with some gnarly twists that will not leave you disappointed. By the end, you almost can’t help but feel slightly exhausted. It probably should have ended about 10 minutes before the cinematic end, but It’s worth a watch. A decent primer for film students on suspense and good tension montage. Get it for a few decent jumps and starts. This is a strong nod to the days of Last House on the Left and the reality horror genre.

What makes a thriller good? It's the suspense, the nail-biting, tense situations the film presents that have the audience at the edge of their seats at all times. And I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that this film delivers just that. Whenever you feel like the scene is over, and that you have some breathing room, BOOM! Fede drops the characters in a much worse predicament, with the excellent and diverse score by Roque Baños pounding in the background. The score of the film elevates each scene and as the film progresses, the movie raises the bar and ups the ante with each passing moment. Once the characters enter the house, the film always has you in a vice grip and never lets go. It makes you feel what the characters are feeling; their dread, their helplessness; and that is a testament to how great a director, Fede is