Don't Breathe (2016)

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  TheMovieDiorama

  8 / 10

  Ending the summer season in horror style, Don't Breathe is about three teenagers robbing houses where they come across a blind army veteran who has quite a lot of money, but not all as it seems because this blind man...is Stephen Lang. The same Stephen Lang who tried to destroy Pandora in Avatar...you just know what you are getting yourself involved in. Right from the opening scene, the tension is building and throughout the 88 minute runtime the suspense just does not stop. This is simply edge of your seat cinema, less horror but more thriller. The performances were great, obviously Stephen lang is a badass (I mean what were the teenagers thinking!? Don't mess with him!) but the robbers themselves played understated performances, each character with their own backstory which were developed enough. The direction from Fede Alvarez just oozed confidence, he knew exactly what he wanted to do and he did it. Excellent camera work (a nice long shot near the beginning of the film, I was impressed!), great lighting to create the atmosphere and good editing to create those jump scares. Speaking of jump scares, there are a few of them however I would not class this film as a horror, it is more a thriller. I was not scared (and to be honest, no one in my cinema was either) but we were all on the edge of our seats. Whilst some might find that a flaw, if anything it is just a misrepresentation of the movie. One flaw that this film does have is that all the characters are bad people and therefore not likeable, which means it is difficult to become attached to them. Overall, Don't Breathe was a great suspenseful thriller with sublime technical aspects and brilliant performances albeit if the characters are not likeable.

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