Green Goblin Reviews: Don’t Breathe
So quick question: When I say the name “Sam Raimi”, is Spider-man the universal thing directly associated with him at this point? I suppose it would be now (and rightfully so), but his work in other subjects needs to be properly recognized as well. He made his own superhero in the form of Darkman, brought syndicated fantasy aventure back to TV with Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: the Legendary Journeys, but his original claim to fame was his love of over-the-top horror. His sense of scares always felt more like the funhouse “BOO!!!! Haha!! Gotcha!!” variety, often tempered with jokes to keep the audience levels, but reinforced with some INSANELY gross practical effects that leave them a little nausous as well (Evil Dead and the criminally overlooked Drag Me To Hell document his style to a tee). So when I hear that he and his handpicked protege from the Evil Dead remake a few years back (also criminally overlooked) are taking a shot at a Hitchcockian suspense film, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Granted the buzz has been good and I didn’t think for a second that I wouldn’t at least get a competent movie-going experience out of it. But I had my doubts that the horror industry’s proverbial Bart Simpson and company would be able to deliver in a way that resonates genuine unease like a slow boil. My doubts were ill-founded. Don’t Breathe is the real deal.
The movie delivers exactly what you want. The premise lets your imagination paint the scenario fairly well: A group of dirt-poor teenage burgulars (one dumb abused girl, one dopey boy with a crush and one wannabe gangster) hear of a huge score in the abandoned part of Detroit. The entire neighborhood is empty, except for one house with a single blind resident. They break in, only to realize that the resident (a Gulf War veteran, played by Stephen Lang) is basically Stick from Daredevil. And of course, because the wannabe gangster brought a gun in with him, this gives the man legal coverage to kill them outright and claim self defense. Of course, the whole plan goes tits-up, and we get the “I’m not trapped in here with you; YOU’RE TRAPPED IN HERE WITH ME” hook in the form of various locks, hidden guns and an attack dog familiar. He lives intentionally off the radar, which means help isn’t coming. There are no neighbors to hear gunshots. Cops don’t patrol the area. So now they’ve got to escape as siltenly as possible and elude a man with heightened hearing. Good luck, kids.
I’m reminded a bit of Wes Craven’s “The People Under the Stairs” (watch this too) in terms of setup, though the tone is more subdued, to give the audience more time to (sorry) hold their breath in suspense. The audio in the film is intentionally muted, so as to heighten your awareness of every footstep, every breath and the jingling of keys. It’s amazing that with that, they’ve managed to turn the grunts and movements of a blind man in his own house into a legit movie monster. And the world is made to feel intentionally small when we’re in his domain. The camera pans allow you to get a feel for the makeup of the house organically, so as to guess where anyone who isn’t on screen is at at any given point. This encourages the audience’s imagination to do most of the scaring itself, which is really one of the best things a horror film can do. Raimi’s always had a knack for that. And though there isn’t much there in terms of aforementioned levity, I must say that the gross-out factor is there and when it does hit, it hits HARD.
Folks, there’s only so much I can without giving away core story elements or scenes that are best left experienced for the first time, but I’ll say that this film is worth seeing and experiencing in theaters. Go see it when you can, ESPECIALLY if you’re a horror fan.
9/10. Check it out.
Now, maybe I should finally dive into that Evil Dead series I’ve heard so much about…