Well crafted, but not well written

Rating: 5/10 (11 September 2016)

In an interview about 'Aliens', James Cameron stated that as he didn't have enough time to go into the backstory of all the marines, the quickest way to make an audience care about a character is to make them funny. How a little humour would've gone a long way in 'Don't Breathe'.
Fede Alvarez knows there's no getting around the central problem of his three protagonists - they're criminals; so he tries to elicit sympathy by portraying their home lives as less than idyllic. Well, sorry, but that just doesn't cut it. He's wasting his time trying to justify their actions, because there's no justification, so he should've at least made them lovable rogues, by having them be witty. Unfortunately, wit is something this film doesn't possess. An 'X Factor' style sob story just doesn't do the trick.
If you look at other teen horrors like 'A Nightmare on Elm Street','Scream', 'Final Destination', etc, they were frequently funny due to the teens remarks about the situation, which makes you warm to the characters. If you don't care, you don't scare.
Having said that, 'Don't Breathe'is very well directed, Alvarez has some camera moves that would make David Fincher proud. It's just a shame not as much thought was invested into making the audience care what happens.