On Sunday, August 28th, 2016, I attended the 10 p.m. showing at a nearby theater of Don’t Breathe, the new film made by the creators of Evil Dead. Below is a review of the film, which may contain some potential spoilers.
When I initially viewed one of the trailers for Don’t Breathe — a trio of home invaders break into a blind man’s house, unknowingly walking into an extremely dangerous situation — I was more than interested in the premise and intrigued by what was advertised as an unexpected “twist.”
That being said, I ultimately felt as if the trailer provided the viewer with too much, especially after watching the film in its entirety. A problematic trailer aside, there were issues of much greater significance that I would like to address, which center around the plot and the main characters.
In regard to the plot itself, I felt as if it heavily relied on constant chaos rather than providing the audience with something of greater value. Although the technique was successful in keeping the audience’s attention, it wasn’t effective in terms of moving past the general premise of home invaders attempting to break out of a blind man’s house with his money.
The majority of the movie consisted of watching Rocky and Alex search for an exit while being pursued by the Blind Man. Did this provide the audience with a good amount of entertainment and suspense? Definitely.
With that said, there isn’t much to discuss aside from that, other than the fact that the plot of the film descended into the realm of absurdity toward its conclusion and felt implausible enough to become almost comedic.
The issues with the plot were directly related to the main characters — specifically, Rocky, Alex, and the Blind Man. Rocky (one of the two main characters that add something worth talking about to the plot) becomes the focus of the movie, so much so that barely any information regarding Alex is revealed, despite the role that he plays.
As a result, the only real purpose for Alex to be in the film after its introduction is for the sake of his general presence, in addition to some poorly constructed shock value.
Besides his central (albeit hollow) role in the film, the same can unfortunately be said for the Blind Man and the “twist” that is centered around his role, which isn’t particularly shocking or original.
Pumpkin Rating & Conclusion
2 / 5 Pumpkins
Don’t Breathe ultimately relies too heavily on its association with the creators of Evil Dead, the promise of a “twist,” and shock value to be something of very high quality, especially when it is advertised as such.