Three burglars find out about a blind army vet, living in an abandoned street, sitting on a huge amount of cash. The three burglars break their rule of not stealing cash and decide to rob the place, thinking it would be a piece of cake. And of course it isn't. The blind army vet isn't as helpless as they had hoped for.
Don't Breathe is directed by Fede Alvarez, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Rodo Sayagues. They obviously felt inspired by David Fincher's Panic Room (2002), and did come up with a great, suspenseful movie. The three burglars are played by Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette and Daniel Zovatto, who all do a great job. Stephen Lang however outshines everyone in this movie as the old blind man. He doesn't say a lot but his gestures and mimics were enough to be uncomfortably creepy. Even though he played a blind guy, he still made his character seem anything but helpless, on the contrary, his character was more menacing than any ghost, monster or murderer from your average horror movie. On the other hand however, you feel sorry for the blind man. He's simply a man trying to protect his house from burglars. Or is there more behind this man? The movie does a good job making you wonder about whether the blind man has something to hide or not. The movie does a poorer job however with Daniel Zovatto's character, he's the typical character every horror movie has: the asshole that talks too much and doesn't care about anything or anyone.
Besides one or two cheap jump scares, the movie succeeded at maintaining a lingering suspense throughout the entire movie. Once the three burglars are inside the house, there won't be a moment that you'll feel at ease. This is an edge-of-your-seat kind of movie. The movie opens with a scene that obviously takes place later in the movie, which alerts you that until that scene, the burglars will never be safe, and heightens the suspense even more.
As the movie progresses, the twists and turns in the story start to accumulate. Twists and turns in a story are great but not if there are too many, and not if these twist and turns are the ones you might expect from a horror movie. Throughout its course, the movie becomes more and more predictable. And this is where the suspense, although still being present, lessens.
'Don't Breathe' is a great horror movie, accessible for people who don't usually enjoy the genre. It has a great premise and is very suspenseful but becomes a bit too predictable over time.
