DON’T BREATHE

US, 2016, 88 minutes, Colour.
Jane Levy, Dylan Minette, Stephen Lang, Daniel Zovatto.
Directed by Fede Alvarez.



Unfortunately, any thriller that seems to have a sense of menace, many fans will think of as a horror movie and, if it doesn’t have blood and gore, if it doesn’t have a lot of special effects, even a touch of the supernatural, they are very disappointed. As has happened with some audiences for this one.

However, most audiences who seek and don’t Read, I’m more than satisfied – they have accepted it not as horror but as a terror film, terror for the characters involved, and a sense of increasing tension and terror for the audience themselves.

The film runs from under 90 minutes but is quite compact and generally quite taut. the premise is quite a straightforward one. Three young people take part in a series of burglaries, grabbing what they can, with touches of vandalism, and then trying to get rid of the goods via a local fence. He urges them, if they want cash, to steal cash and that gives them agenda for the next robbery.

The background is to treat, a city in collapse, with a lot of the settings here dilapidated buildings, abandoned houses, derelict streets. It also gives each of the three something in the background story, especially the girl, Roxy (Jane Leavy) who has difficulties at home, a slatternly mother and her boyfriend, and the young sister who would love to live near the surface. one complex one the Congress, Alex (Dylan Minette) is a bit wary of the robberies, does not want to go to California as Roxy does, gets information on houses from his insurance father in the case out house, a man who has received cash in a damages case, but whom they discover is blind. What could be more straightforward than getting into his house, finding the cash and escaping?

Will, of course, it doesn’t go like that at all, and that makes the process always interesting, always tense, the three discovering that the blind man is not exactly helpless and that while they might get the money, it is not a sure thing to get out of the house. One of the interesting features of the screenplay is that there are a variety of terms and developments in the plot, some quite unforeseen, which makes the morality of the stealing as well is of the blind man much more ambiguous.

Stephen Lang is particularly effective as the blind man, using all his senses to make him alert, realising the presence of the three burglars – even though they force themselves to be quiet and obey the title of the film, Don’t Breathe.

As far as home invasion stories go, this one is pretty good, quite a moral issue being raised, unexpectedly, towards the end of the film – and leaving the audience with some uncertainties about the future.

1. A well-made terror film? taut, developing turns throughout the film? The overall impact?

2. The plausibility of the plot, even the seemingly implausible possible?

3. The Detroit settings, the deterioration, the empty buildings, the slums, the streets, ordinary homes? The film and its focus inside the house, the variety of rooms, stairs, ducts, cellar, the imprisonment of the captive? The use of the confined spaces, credible action? Atmospheric score?

4. Introduction to Roxy, Alex, Money, in the house, stealing everything, urinating on the floor, breaking the window? Conscienceless?

5. Alex, his father, researching homes and insurance? Information about the blind man’s house? Alex changing his mind, not wanting to go to California, deciding to go? Money, his name, tattoos, amoral? Roxanne, at home, the slatternly mother, the boyfriend, drinking, the little girl, Roxy and her hard life, her mother assuming that she was a prostitute? The little girl, wanting to serve, Roxy promising to take her to California? Some motivation for the robbery?

6. The initial image, the woman dragged along the street – and the repetition at the end with its entire implications?

7. Watching the house, seeing the blind man, the decision that it would be easy to rob him? The vast amount of cash? The plans to get into the house, Alex and his machine to stop the security? The difficulty in opening the door? The experience of the dog, evading it? Roxy and the breaking of the window, getting in, finding the security in time, opening the door?

8. Money, his gas machine, going upstairs, the blind man in bed, the television? The struggle? His turning on the gas? Presuming the man had been gassed?

9. The search for the cash, the locked door, Money and the gun, the others and their reaction to the gun, the danger in being arrested, armed burglary? The blind man coming in, the fight with Money, the shots, Money dead?

10. Alex wanting to go home because of the gun, not getting out, Roxy hiding in the closet, the communication by texting?

11. The tension building up in the house, the two not breathing, the board creaking, the suspicions of the blind man? Roxy seeing the safe, the number, opening it, getting the money out, putting it in her bag? Carrying the bag through the ordeal? The blind man opening it and finding the money gone?

12. The dangers in the house, from room to room, the pursuit of the dog, the attacks?

13. Going to the basement, the discovery of the captive, the newspaper and her story, the motivation of the blind man, his daughter dead in the accident, the woman pronounced not guilty of manslaughter, his capturing her? Their freeing her, the blind man coming down, the shots – and her death?

14. The attacks on Alex, wounded, yet surviving, at the window, on the glass? The irony of the shears, the audience think it was Alex but actually the corpse of Money?

15. Roxy in the ducts, climbing through, the pursuit by the dog, the dog at the window?

16. The two together, Roxie taken, bashed, tied up like the captive?

17. The blind man’s revelation about his daughter, the plan for Roxie’s pregnancy, the semen, Alex attacking, it going into the blind man’s mouth? Their tying him up?

18. The final attack Alex, his death? Roxy getting out of the house, escaping the man, finding the dog pursuing her, getting into the car, the attacks by the dog, closing up the window, the money satchel outside? Her remembering her story about the ladybug and her mother putting her in the trunk of the car, opening it up, luring the dog in, trapping the dog inside?

19. The men pursuing Roxy, her attack on him, his injuries? Running away?

20. Taking her sister to California, their bags, the terminal? The television news – the blind man surviving, the assumption that there were two burglars only, but his being able to survive and give information?

21. The different moral perspectives, changes of sympathies, issues of truth and justice – and are sufficiently moral ambiguity at the end for the man and for Roxy?