Don't Breathe (2016)

 

This little film was surprisingly one of the best thriller/horrorfilms released the past few years. Maybe not the most popular one, as such is relegated to the likes of the found footage 'Insidious'-series and various spin-offs/knockoffs, but that only means this one is all the more worthwile to check out. Its ideas are simple yet effective and it keeps up the tension for pretty much the entire time, often making you wonder what will be next.

Also: the jumpscares here actually work. 

Our protagonist is Rocky, a young girl who has a pretty dour situation with an alcoholic mom with an arsehat boyfriend, but she sticks around to take care of her little sister. She wants to get the little girl away from there, but in order to do that she and two of her friends (Money and Alex) break into homes and steal valuables. This is made all the easier as Alex' dad has a home security business, so Alex can just take the keys of those homes which makes breaking in a lot easier.

Also: our three leads are pretty much awful. They try to give Alex and Rocky some form of redemption, by making Rocky do this because of her little sister and Alex because he has the hots for Rocky, but they are still  horrendous people. Money is just a clichéd prat anyway. You shouldn't care whether or not they die, but it speaks volumes to the craft of the director that the tension is there. 

They hear that a disabled veteran has a ton of money and decide this is the big score they need to end on. The man also lives in a dilapidated part of town with no neighbours whatsoever, so they figure this will be a breeze. Turns out this guy's house is better locked than they anticipated and they soon discover that for a blind guy, he can actually take care of himself. In fact, it doesn't take long before the burglars become locked in the house and the question of who is stalking who becomes moot as this man proves to be a lot more than the teens foresaw. 

And that is even before they discover something that turns this story even more disturbing... 

So yes, there is a sort of twist in here, but this shall not be spoiled here. That would just be in poor taste.

Like stated earlier: the leads are unlikable to a fault. The sister angle for Rocky is thrown in there to not make her feel completely obnoxious, but she still is nowhere near a decent person. Money is an absolute cock and Alex is a loser who will only get his father in trouble and make the poor man lose his job. But they are not the reason to see this.

No, that honour goes to Stephen Lang, who once again proves that he can take on very different roles and who is equal parts tragic, psychotic and downright scary in this one. Now sure, the man has a very distinct look, but the makeup and lenses he uses here to portray the blinded veteran are creepy in the light, let alone when they make clever use of infrared photography. There is something deeply disturbing about his determination to get the culprits and how he stalks the kids through the house. There's a very cool sequence in the basement when he cuts the power and they are completely blinded, whereas his world of course doesn't change. It's pretty tense.

Tense is in every way the key word here. This film is brutal in its incessant ramping up of suspense and you will be sucked in and fidgeting on the edge of your seat until the climax. The story throws a few curveballs your way and it never feels clichéd or hamfisted. And to be sure: some scenes are pretty gnarly. You'll know them when you see them. 

'Don't Breathe' is a breath (pun intended) of fresh air in the horror genre and one of those films that stays thrilling, even after multiple viewings. 

And Stephen Lang deserves a lot more praise than he gets.