If you don't find this nerve-wracking then you haven't got a pulse

Rating: 8/10 (24 August 2017)

A trio of thieves decide to rob the home of an ex-army Gulf war veteran whom has received $300,000 dollars in compensation which he has stashed in his home. The thieves see this guy as being easy pickings due to him ending up being blind as a result of serving in the Gulf War, but this homeowner isn't prepared to surrender his home or his money without a fight and our trio find themselves faced with a deadly adversary...
Don't Breathe is a wonderful film whereby its very excellence lies with its simplicity; it's another home-invasion thriller and at no point does it try to be anything else (it can hardly be accused of re-inventing the wheel). However, from the moment the thieves enter the victim's home the film never lets up and director Fede Alvarez keeps things moving at a rapid rate. The idea that the victim is blind only helps to crank the tension up and helps to keep the viewer on edge - I found myself looking and listening out for the slightest sound which may cause the homeowner to rumble the thieves.
Alvarez wisely keeps the direction tight and fluid and most of the focus lies on the thieves and their perilous journey to escape from a man that they feel that they shouldn't have tried to rob in the first place.
In some ways Don't Breathe is an odd film from a viewing perspective as you find yourself unsure who exactly you should be rooting for; you can't really root for the thieves (for obvious reasons) and part of you wants to root for the victim, but some twists later in the film kind of make it hard to do this as well. So what you need to do with this film is just go with the flow and sit back and enjoy this claustrophobic, terrifying and nerve-shredding thriller that basically grips you from start to finish and try not to get bogged down with any moral ambiguities.
Simply put this is a top-drawer home-invasion thriller which kept me on the edge-of-my-seat and helped me restore some faith in a genre that has produced rather mixed results over the years.