Don’t Breathe 2 review by Bobby Blakey
Director Fede Alvarez took the horror genre by storm with his awesome remake of the classic Evil Dead and followed that up with his 2016 hit Don’t Breathe starring the always awesome Stephen Lang. With the success of the film it came as no surprise that we get to revisit the blind man with Lang returning to the role and this time Rodo Sayagues stepping into the director’s seat. Could this next chapter offer up more insanity like the first film or will it get lost in the dark?
Don’t Breath 2 follows Norman Nordstrom who has taken in and raised a young girl orphaned from a house fire while hiding out for years in an isolated cabin. Their quiet existence is shattered when a group of kidnappers show up and take the girl, forcing Norman to leave his safe haven to save her.
One of the big things I heard people saying based on the trailer for this film was the concern of making Norman a hero suddenly after the events of the first movie. This could not be further from the truth. Sure there is a redemption/acceptance angle here, but it actually works to perfection in the direction they take this story. Make no mistake though, this is another film filled with pretty much all horrible people doing horrible things with no real heroes including Norman. His only heroic place is that of trying to save this girl, but even that is not all that noble.
The story is pretty simple and I was kind of excited as it seemed be setting up one direction and then looked to be the perfect bait and switch, but alas did circle back to where it was teasing. This didn’t hurt the film at all, but I just saw such a clever unexpected direction and hoped it would stick to that direction. IT does on some level, but not in the way that I had hoped. It’s big twist is an interesting decision that does still work and gives you a glimpse to who the “good guys” may actually be, but as with the first film nothing is what it seems.
Lang is brilliant here once again with him actually getting a little bit more
to do that normalizes him as a person, but quickly reminds you of who he really is. I found it genius to give him this one line he won’t cross in the film after everything else we all know he has done and it shows there is more under the layers of loss, sadness and all around insanity. There is plenty of violence and brutality throughout as fans will no doubt be hoping for and once it gets going it’s pretty steady throughout its tight run time.
In the end it is a different film on some levels than the first film, but still hits a lot of the same marks that made the first one so great. There isn’t anything here that quite rivals that finale of the original, but instead serves as a great continuation to the story. I love Lang in this role and would love to see more, but must admit this is a pretty good cap to the story so kind of hope they let it be what it is.
In addition to the film this release features bonus content including commentaries, alternate ending and numerous featurettes taking you behind this latest entry. Grab your copy of Don’t Breath 2 available now on digital and then 4K, Blu-ray and DVD on October 26th from Sony Home Entertainment.