Don't Breathe

Rating: 4/10 (29 August 2016)

I had been anticipating the 2016 feature written and directed by Fede Alvarez for months. Being a big fan of the horror movie genre, I always make new horror movies a must-see theatre event. Starring Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, and Daniel Zovatto as three thieving teenagers who set their sights on robbing a blind man in a secluded neighborhood who supposedly sits on a massive sum from a settlement. Desperation leads people to some sinister places, and the desperation of each character was explored in Alvarez's Don't Breathe.
Three teenagers in depression sacked Michigan have turned to robbery as a means of survival. For Rocky (Jane Levy) there is another agenda to her criminal deeds. She has clearly lived a rough life with her addiction ridden abusive mother and can't stand to see her sister live the same life she lived, Rocky just wants to steal enough to be able to afford to take them away and start a new life. Alex (Dylan Minnette) is the brains of the operation; his father's work as a security guard affords him access to the master keys that disarm those homes and grant the teens access to steal. Money (Daniel Zovatto) is the muscle, finding out what homes to rob and selling the goods they steal for cash after each break-in. When Money hears that there is a man in a secluded, run-down neighborhood sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars he won in a settlement with a wealthy family whose young daughter killed his own daughter after striking her with a vehicle, the take is too good to refuse. Once they find out the man is blind, however, Alex has a change of heart and a resurgence of morals at the prospect of stealing from a handicapped person. Money and Rocky conversely start to think that the robbery will be all the easier and are invigorated thinking about the riches they are sure to achieve. Once they gain entry, however, things take a turn for the worse quickly, and the teens realize they are vastly in over their head and will be lucky to get out with their lives, let alone the money.
Don't Breathe isn't without its good moments, unfortunately, those are just moments. Daniel Zovatto really chews the scenery, and his over-exaggerated facial expressions are extremely distracting. The score is one of pure laziness. I subscribe to the notion that a horror movie is dependent upon its score. What is a good horror movie without a blood pressure raising tone to it; certainly Jaws nor Halloween would be as revered to the genre if it weren't for their classic fear-inducing music. Don't Breathe just doesn't have it, I'm not sure what the composer was going for but it didn't work. All the elements were there but it didn't amount in the end. The third act was a sharp departure from the first two and was a complete mess that didn't fit in with the preceding elements in the least. What Don't Breathe did do well was create the downtrodden, desperate atmosphere that the American town hit hardest by the economic depression of 2008 has had to deal with ever since. The audience can really appreciate the lowly state of all the kids involved that has brought them to stealing as a means of survival. I was hoping for so much more from Don't Breathe, but it falls flat, like most modern-day horror movies leaving one to wonder, is there any hope for the genre in a post-slasher film horror world?