Review: "Don't Breathe" gives fresh spin on break-in horror stories

Fede Alvarez, writer and director, brings a new twist to the horrors of home invasion. In the past, home invasion movies

entered on terrorization of those who happened to be home when criminals showed up. Think When a Stranger Calls or Scream. But Alvarez flips the genre around to where it's the criminals whose lives are on the line.

Don’t Breathe opens with Rocky, Money and Alex; friends scraping to get by in their small dying town where work is hard to come by. The trio earn an income through illegally entering wealthy family homes to sell their goods on the black market. Set in Detroit, Michigan, the camera pans around the dying town showcasing dead business and abandoned suburbs to give viewers a better understanding of the bleak situation our characters face. Rocky (played by Jane Levy) is a young single mother desperate to escape the abuse of her alcoholic mother and good-for-nothing boyfriend to make a better life for her daughter. Money (played by Daniel Zovatto) is Rocky’s troublemaker boyfriend who steals for the thrill of it.

After their latest heist, Money hears of an old house in an abandoned part of town holding a nice lump sum of cash ripe for the taking. The owner, a blind veteran, won a major settlement for the death of his only child in a hit-and-run. Despite the dangers of a felony charge if they are caught, the thought of losing the key to their freedom is too appealing for them to pass up.

A lot is riding on this heist for Rocky and Money who are desperate to escape their rough upbringing for something better. If everything goes according to their plan, this will be their last run. Alex (played by Dylan Minnette) follows along in to watch out for Rocky and make sure the gang doesn’t get themselves in too much trouble. Which is why it was fairly obvious that anything and everything that could have went wrong, went wrong. Even though this film opens with a typical formula we’ve all seen before with home invasion movies the 20 minutes or so really didn’t matter that much to the plot as the story (and action) doesn’t start until the burglars find themselves trapped in the house.

Don’t Breath is a great movie for those who aren’t big on horror movies with supernatural, sadistic or gruesome elements. This thriller is more of slow burn rooted in reality that draws you in and will have you rooting for the anti heroes to make it out alive, especially in the last arc. This film was not very complex or hard to follow but I was at the edge of seat waiting to see what would happen next. Alvarez and Sayagues take a simple setting (the blind man’s house) and turns it into a horror home.

You would think it would be easy to leave the house. After all, the gang got in fairly easily. But, Alvarez and Sayagues has a few twists that makes escape more treacherous and tedious.

None of the characters are really built up or fleshed out to create a deeper attachment with viewers. But, Alvarez does a great job of highlighting The Blind Man’s brutalness to underscore the trio's faults. I mean, what film has you rooting for burglars? At various points throughout the film, you’ll find yourself flipping between sympathizing with the burglars (poor desperate teens struggling to get by) and the blind man (a grieving father who just lost his daughter).

Stephen Lang was amazing as the blind man whose grief and rage over the death of his daughter manifests itself as cynical madness.