By Emilio Frenk
Director: Fede Álvarez
Cast: Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto, Emma Bercovici and Stephen Lang.
Rating: Excellent.
Fede Álvarez, Uruguayan director of the 2013 version of “Evil Dead” brings another movie to the horror genre. “Don’t Breathe” and I vas very impressed with it.
The movie opens with three Detroit young delinquents: Rocky (Jane Levy), Money (Daniel Zovatto) and Alex (Dylan Minnette) who make a living by breaking in to houses, stealing things and sell them.
Everything changes when Money is tipped about a retired army veteran (Stephen Lang) who happens to be blind has a fortune worth of 300,000 dollars.
That same night the three break in to the house. Thinking it was going to be an easy task and take advantage for the fact that the man is blind; they understimate that fact and the man is enranged and he will due anything to get rid of the three burglars.
Now it´s up to the three young guys to figure out how to get out of the house before it´s too late.
“Don´t Breathe” has all the elements of what a good thriller should have that is engaging, tense and has a very original story.
The Script also written by Álvarez and he was very smart on how to manipulate the audience in most of the movie and that is one of the most difficult things to do in filmmaking and he took it to another level.
The thing that I was not that convinced was by the acting and that could have been managed in a better way. The advantage of this genre is that can give the actor a lot of freedom in terms of how to portray a role, even if by moments tends to be overacted.
Although that didn´t bother me and another element that I loved of the film is that once you think the tension is gone suddenly something scary happens and you jumped out of the seat which had a huge effect on me.
I mentioned previously when I reviewed “Lights Out” that is one of the scariest movies of this year. I put this one at the same level and it did deliver the goods.
I´m happy that a genre that became extinct is trying to be revived in a very smart way and not leaving all the guts and blood which has been one of the most common elements to be seen lately, making the films boring and monotonous.
The key element for a good horror film is that it has to have psychological elements on it. Without it it´s gone and a project of this genre it´s useless.
Fede Álvarez delivered a great horror film and has one of the best twists I´ve seen in the genre today.
Don´t Breathe I put it as one of the biggest surprises of the year and I think you are going to be engaged from the beginning to the end of the film and I think it will be remembered as one the most frightning thrillers for a while.