Well done for the most part

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2017)

I don't understand why the major Hollywood studios don't make more low to medium budgeted movies. The financial risk is lower, the return on every invested dollar has a good chance of being higher than on a big budget movie, and the filmmakers of these movies tend to work harder in many aspects to deliver the goods to the audience since they don't have the money for special effects and other eye candy details. "Don't Breathe" is an example of such a success. Not just with its financial success at the box office, but that clearly a lot of thought went to figuring out how to entertain its audience on a fairly low budget. The movie is fast-paced, with a story that gets right to business quickly and has no unnecessary fat. The thrills come with old fashioned suspense, which still works in this age of CGI. I have to admit that I was riveted from start to finish, wondering which character (if any) would win out or even survive.
However, I will admit that the movie is not perfect. There are some murky and sometimes hard to swallow plot points, like (spoilers ahead!) how the blind man managed to get his hands on the woman in the basement in the first place, or managed to hide her body completely once the cops came. And while I can believe blind people in real life can work well in and out of home without sight, some of the blind man's elaborate actions in this movie were a bit unbelievable. Fortunately, these and other somewhat questionable script details don't interfere too much, and the movie still ends up being a pretty good thriller.