Film Review: Don't Breathe

Horror films have longed preyed on our fear of the dark, but some genre flicks have heightened that vulnerability even more. The 1967 classic Wait Until Dark and 2010’s Julia’s Eyes focused on blind protagonists trying to outsmart and survive their tormenters – but now Fede Alvaerz’s Don’t Breathe has flipped the script again.

Written by Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues (the team behind the Evil Dead reboot), this deliciously nasty and mercilessly tense home invasion horror makes blind homeowner (Stephen Lang) the tormenter, rather than the victim. When three young burglars (Dylan Minnette, Jane Levy, Daniel Zovatto) break into his Detroit home to look for a rumoured jackpot of cash, the muscular and lethal war veteran barricades them inside his labyrinthine house. As he ruthlessly hunts them, without sight but with a greater knowledge of his home’s geography and cache of weapons, it becomes clear that this monstrous killing machine is hiding more than money.

Much like their characters, Alvarez and Sayagues quickly demonstrate ingenious ways of manoeuvring through tight confines. Their dialogue-light screenplay is filled with ever-twisting developments of space, morality and character. Though cameras charge through the house to show every lock, potential weapon and escape route, the film holds back on revealing the characters’ motives until you’re already drenched with adrenaline and dread.

Slowly building terror rather than trading on quick, cheap scares, the film is filled with foreboding. Every noise from a breath, footstep or cellphone could be the death of our characters, keeping the audience invested in every stressful second. As the final act delves into a newly gruesome and psychologically terrifying form of horror, the mesmerising inventiveness and brilliant brutality of the film is showcased in all its sick glory.

You’ll never see it coming.