Don't Breathe : La Maison des ténèbres

Don't Breathe: That rare modern horror film that uses tension building and atmosphere. With an unsettiling preformance from Stephan Lang and a totaly original story while being full of hitchcocking suspence and twists to create real modern horror, Don't Breathe is that rare modern horor film that succeds Intellectually as well as viscerally. if you like horror it is a must watch!

Three crooks. The usual cliche driven plot. These are nice crooks. They have a golden heart, well two of them do.

How they don't get busted after the initial robbery is beyond me. No masks. Fingerprints and DNA everywhere.

Expositions like they're going out of fashion.

Next on the list, the blind man's house.

Why would someone who has received a big settlement keep the cash in his house? Why would anyone assume he's got cash in the house? Why do compensation payouts/settlements always get covered in the news for everyone to see. More exposition.

Moronic crooks get a face off with a blind veteran who's hearing is ridiculously poor. I mean there's windows smashing, people crouching next to him and all sorts of sounds that are being failed to be picked up.

It's a daft film. Watch the first 20 mins. Fast forward to the last 15 minutes. It's dumb.

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.

After Evil Dead's well-made remake, a lot of us felt that Fede Alvarez was a director to watch. With Don't Breathe, he definitely became a director I'm very excited to see future projects from.

I admire his knack to generate tension. After the film kicks off, there is really no stopping. It became almost unbearable at the end, nearly reaching the point of overkill. When you have a thriller filled with so much tension throughout its running time, there's only so much you can do before you start yelling "you gotta be kidding me" at the screen.

The cinematography was beautiful and moody and the performances were fine, except maybe Jane Levy, who I felt was too wooden, making her character a little bit unlikable.

Don't Breathe was a solid effort and a great addition to the home invasion genre with a little twist.

Don't Breath is a great movie with a very well developed plot and a stellar cast. It is an absolute thrill ride, from the moment we enter this man's house there is a tension that does not go away, it never becomes tiring. It had me at the edge of my seat from start to finish, as we quickly gain support for these thieves as they get caught up in a bad situation.

It did, on the other hand, make some cliché plot developments. There are some moments that were so typical they took me away from a movie that was clearly trying to stand out, but was clearly forced by the studio to have some predictable plot points.

The cast is phenomenal and their chemistry with one another added to the suspense. Jane Levy and Dylan Minnette were very believable as down on their luck teenagers. The star of the show, however, is without a doubt Stephen Lang, a completely engrossing performance of a ruthless man with no soul, I believe it will go down as the highlight of his career.

The intimacy of the film is the main thing that makes it so fresh and interesting as a thriller, if it was taking place around a city or in a town it would not be half as suspenseful as having it all take place in a house. An intense adventure, Don't Breathe is a refreshing movie that certainly stands out from the crowd, I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good thriller.

A group of teenagers break in to a blind man's home in order to rob his possessions, however, they soon realise he is far smarter than they thought.

Best Performance: Stephen Lang