Ashdoc's movie review---Don't breathe

by ashdoc Mon Sep 19, 2016 7:40 am

Three burglars decide to rob a blind man who has a large sum of money stacked in the safe in his house---money he got as settlement when his daughter got killed in an accident . The blind man lives in an isolated neighbourhood and lives alone---so the task of robbing him seems to be easy . But the blind man is an army veteran and he has a ferocious dog , so for the first time one of the burglars carries a gun with him , even though they have no experience or intentions to use it . The other two burglars do not know of the gun at all , and are shocked by seeing it later .

One of the burglars is a girl ( played by Jane Levy ) and she is pretty with blond hair . One wonders why such a pretty girl would get mixed up with this kind of crime , but as she explains she has had a tough childhood in which her mother used to keep her locked up in the trunk of a car and even now practically neglects her . The burglar girl dreams of moving to California with her cute little sister , and her motive for the burglary is that the money would help her achieve her dreams . One of the two male burglars is also a cute kid who is initially reluctant to join and scrams off for a while on seeing the gun , before deciding to come back .

As the three give the dog some spiked food to eat which puts it to sleep for a while , they enter the house . But the blind man does not turn unconscious by the gas they propel into his room , and that is where things turn wrong . The blind man has a gun too , and being an army veteran he is more prepared to use it . On the other hand the burglars do not have to guts to use their gun , and this turns things really awry for them .

The blind man has far more physical strength than the three , and he is far more vicious than they think . He is able to fire his gun accurately in the direction of sound , and the sound of heavy breathing ( which the terrified burglars are likely to make in their fright ) is where he will fire . So the key word for the burglars is 'don't breathe' while being confronted by the blind man , which fully justifies the title of the movie .

As the burglars cannot escape from the house , they go deep inside it and that is their mistake---for they stumble upon the blind man's dark secret , and that really sets him on finishing them off . So what is the secret that the man is hiding ? Will any of them escape from the situation alive ?

As the man switches off the lights of the house , the movie is in darkness ; another element is the dog who is ferocious when he finally wakes up and has a serious impact on the proceedings . The movie moves forward in the dark rooms and underground corridors of the house and later outside in the surrounding streets , and keeps you tensed all along . The movie is more thriller than horror , though some jolts in the movie remind you of horror movies especially because they are in the typical setting of horror movies---in a darkened house .

Photography and sound effects are appropriate for the situations and the acting is in capable hands . The triumph of the director is in making the criminals look like victims once inside the house and making you sympathise with them ; I was really hoping that the three would escape from the house and escape with the money they came to loot !! So do they ? Watch the movie for that...

Verdict---Good .

Three and a half stars .

Hitskin.com

Ashdoc's movie review---Don't breathe

Ashdoc's movie review---Don't breathe