A good premise, which was well executed

Rating: 8/10 (28 March 2017)

Three teenagers break into the house of an old blind man, which they believe will be a simple task. Turns out it's not when the old blind man is played by Stephen Lang
The director is the same one who tried to remake "Evil Dead", which he did just OK-ly. In this film however Fede Alvarez, the director, did a fantastic job. He was the best part of the whole film. He used some very good camera movements and long takes, which created a slow feel at times, to create a tenser atmosphere. There's a very good scene when the three main protagonists first enter the house of the blind man. This was made to look like a long continuous take, in which the camera moves through the floor and through walls. In that sequence we also get to see some things that will be used further on in the film. They accentuate the things that later will be used pretty hard, but I didn't really mind because of the awesomeness of that scene alone. Fede Alvarez was really good at creating tension. He used slow editing, mixed with camera movements that went slow, or fast when needed. To build up tension, the editing was slow, and the camera movements to were slow. When there was a chase scene, it was the exact opposite. The amazing score accompanied with these scenes also helped with creating the tense atmosphere that they are going for. But the thing that might help the most is the basic premise of the film. The man having the disadvantage to the kids with being blind, and them breaking into his house, but more on that later. The cinematography was really good, this was one of the better looking horror films of recent years, some others conclude "It Follows" and I found "Green Room" to be shot very good as well.
The acting was just OK overall. The main actress wasn't fantastic, but she did what she did what the film asked of her. Jane Levy played this character. The kid from "Goosebumps", Dylan Minnette (Alex in the film) was pretty good. At least better than his co-star Jane Levy. The third and final kid of the three that break in was played by Daniel Zovatto, who basically copied Jared Leto's performance from "Panic Room". Not only did he copy his performance, but also his looks (the hair/clothing style). "Don't breathe" copies that film in numerous aspects and it's quite obvious that it wants to pay homage to it, but at times they could've kept it more subtle. The scene which I previously talked about (the one continuous take), was also sort of copied from "Panic Room". The final actor I want to talk about is also basically the only actor who's there to talk about, who's also the star of the film, namely Stephen Lang, who played the blind man. He was fantastic. I loved his performance. He was menacing, yet made it in the beginning look like he was very innocent. The depth that he brought to his character was really good. And also note that he barely has any lines, so it was really amazing how he was able to express his emotions via little to no dialogue, which only makes the role harder.
The screenplay was OK; the dialogue and premise were good, but the plot conveniences weren't really that good. These convenience or illogicalities really brought me out of the film at times. The inconsistency of the blind man's senses is an example of plot conveniences. He could smell shoes that were on the other side of the room, but wasn't able to smell someone, who's probably sweating due to stress, standing next to me. But also some things that happen mainly because of plot. Like the dog magically appearing in the house, yet all doors were locked. Or when Goosebumps kid falls through a window, yet they're all covered with bars The film contains a lot of these instances to which I disturbed myself, but these flaws aren't really groundbreaking. They are bad parts of the film and affect the grade that I'm giving this film, but overall worse things could've happened, and the good parts certainly outweigh the bad parts. Like the main premise for example. It was an original idea that hasn't really been done before, except for last year's "Hush", but I that film the one whose house gets broken into was deaf and not blind. This sets up an interesting story, which was also executed pretty well. And what I also liked from the film is that it plays with who you are rooting for. At first I wasn't rooting for the three leads at all, because, well, they're breaking into the house of a defenseless, old, blind man. Even when we learn that the man isn't as defenseless as he seemed in the beginning, I still rooted for him, but then at around 75 percent into the film, something happens whereby the rooting side changed, and I really liked that.
In the end "Don't Breathe" was a well shot and directed film, with an interesting premise that was well executed. It does suffer a bit of plot conveniences, but these are outweighed by the better aspects of the film. That's why this one gets an 8.1/10.