An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at 2016’s Don’t Breathe
Don’t Breathe stars Jane Levy, was directed by Fede Álvarez, and has Sam Raimi as a producer. This is the exact same team as 2013’s Evil Dead, you can read our review/explanation for Evil Dead here.
Three thieves break into blind army vet’s home at night but their plan backfires when the army vet proves more dangerous than they imagined.
Is it Scary?
While Don’t Breathe won’t leave you terrified you will definitely be on the edge of your seat in suspense throughout most of it’s runtime. It’s extremely effective at creating those anxiety-laden moments that will have you scared shitless for the characters.
Detailed Plot:
The movie opens with a shot of a man dragging a woman down an empty street. Since the woman looks like Jane Levy, the actress on the movie poster, I’m assuming this is a scene of things to come.
We then see a the movie’s title pop up and we cut to three people breaking into a home during the day. The three thieves are our main characters:
We have Dylan Minnette on the back left playing Alex, Jane Levy in center playing Roxanne AKA Rocky, and Daniel Zovatto playing Money AKA idiot. This first scene is effective in laying out the three different personalities, it makes you really wonder how the hell did this group come together.
Alex appears to be the careful one and the brains of the operation. He is the one who opens the door, disables the alarm, and instructs the group to not take any cash ensuring the total take is less than 10 grand. Even his approach at picking and choosing items to steal is careful and calculated.
Rocky heads for the main bedroom and takes high-end clothing, at one point wearing them and laying on the bed. In a way this tells us she longs for something more or just wants new clothes so bad, she can’t wait to wear them.
The idiot, Money, is seen breaking things and all-around not taking things seriously. We even see him masturbate in the living room leaving his DNA everywhere because he’s an idiot.
As the group leave, Alex tosses an apple through the glass backdoor to trigger the alarm and they run off. Later the three are in a car discussing their plans their future plans. It’s pretty obvious Alex has a thing for Rocky and is shocked when she tells him her plan is to leave Detroit as soon as they make enough money.
At his home, Alex places the keys of the house they robbed in a folder in his dad’s office. Turns out they were able to get access to the homes because Alex’s dad owns a security company that has copies of all the keys. This also explains why he broke the glass door to trigger the alarm as that hides how they really entered the house.
We next cut to Money selling the items the group stole and getting a tip for their next heist. In a diner sometime later, he shows the group the house and tells them it belongs to an army veteran who lives in an abandoned part of town. Several years earlier the army vet’s daughter was run over by a girl from a rich family. The family paid the vet somewhere around 300 thousand for the wrongful death.
The amount immediately turns off Alex who states anything above 10 thousand is grand larceny and will incite a serious investigation. Because of this and problems that it may bring his family he refuses to do the job.
Back at home, Alex gets a text from Rocky asking him to do the job “for her” as she needs to get “her out of here”.
Later we see Rocky at home and it’s not great. As she takes care of her younger sister, her mom, who is sitting on the couch with her swastika-tatted unemployed boyfriend, insinuates Rocky is performing sex acts for money.
While preparing to take a walk with her sister, Rocky gets a text from Alex agreeing to do the job. She then promises her sister they’ll move to California and we can surmise the “her” from the text is her sister.
The thieves stake out the home and Alex notices a new tattoo of a ladybug on Rocky’s arm. As a child, Rocky’s mother-of-the-year would lock her in the trunk of the car if she cried too much after her father left them. One time while locked in the trunk a ladybug flew in and kept her company, which gives me an idea for a Disney movie.
Alex announces he’ll go with Rocky and her sister to California if they get the money and Rocky is receptive to the idea.
Money retrieves a camera that’s been watching the house and returns to the car showing the others that the army vet never leaves the house, so they’ll have to rob it with him inside. After announcing it will be a piece of cake we get a jump scare when the army vet’s large Rottweiler jumps at the car window.
The group see the army vet, Norman Nordstrom, (played by Stephan Lang) a few feet from the car and realize he is blind.
That night at 2am the group return to the house and throw a piece of sleeping pill in a hot dog over the fence for the Rottweiler. Once it’s asleep the group search for a side door after they find the front door has four locks despite Alex only having one key.
Alex readies a device that will either shut off or trigger an alarm if within several feet from it but the group find the side door bolted shut. Money finds cellar doors but those are locked from the inside as well. Rocky then notices a small bathroom window above them and chooses to go in alone.
Alex gives her the device and tells her she only has thirty seconds to get in and disarm the security system. After breaking in Rocky rushes through the halls of the house and successfully disarms the system but drags shards of glass into the house. Because the director lingered on the small glass shards, I’m sure they’ll come into play again. I’ve seen movies!
Rocky then unlocks and opens the side door for the Alex and Money. The three remove their shoes leaving them in the vestibule and start their search for the money. As they search, the group pass by a room full of tools, a basement door bolted closed with a lock, and a bell with a string that leads down to the basement.
Money heads upstairs and into Norman’s room where a sleeping Norman has fallen asleep listening to old home movies of his daughter. Money drops some powder into a plastic bottle with water which starts to create a sleeping gas. He stops when he sees Norman is now sitting up in his bed.
Luckily for Money, Norman is still blind and doesn’t see him standing there. Norman shuts off the tv and goes back to sleep. Money pokes a hole in the plastic bottle allowing the sleeping gas to escape and leaves the room.
He heads downstairs and loudly announces Norman is asleep and honestly he probably should have waited a few minutes. The three converge on the basement door assuming if the money is in the house, it must be downstairs.
Money attempts to break the lock with a crowbar but is unsuccessful. He reveals a gun which freaks Alex out since bringing a gun to the robbery gives Norman a legal right to shoot them in self-defense. Money calls Alex a bitch and shoots the lock causing Alex to call it quits and leave the house.
Money rips the bolt off the door and opens it but surprise, surprise Norman appears at the foot of the stairs calling out asking who is in the house. The two carefully and quietly take several steps back but Money makes himself known telling Norman he’s the only one in the house.
Norman takes a few steps forward stepping on the basement lock and reaches out to close the basement door. Money points the gun at Norman and yells out that he knows what’s down there and will not leave without it.
Norman takes several steps forward essentially calling Money’s bluff that he’ll shoot and manages grab him by the neck, slamming him against the wall. Money begs to be let go as Norman gains control of the gun and asks how many of them are there. After stating it’s just him in the house, Norman shoots Money in the head, killing him.
Shocked and scared for her life, Rocky hides in the closet and recreates the poster of the movie. Having heard the gunshots, Alex returns to the house and narrowly misses Norman rushing down the hall.
Alex hides in the bathroom as Norman barricades the bathroom window and places new locks on the doors. Rocky texts Alex her location and is about to attempt an escape when Norman enters the closet. She watches as he reveals a hidden safe, opening it to check on the money.
After he leaves Alex enters the closet and states the obvious, that they need to leave. Before they do, Rocky opens the safe and takes the money which Alex notes must be closer to a million dollars.
Knowing the other doors have fresh locks, the two attempt to head to the basement to escape through the cellar doors but Norman appears at the basement door. Rocky and Alex takes several careful steps back as Norman starts to wrap Money’s body in plastic. Why hasn’t he called the police?
One of Alex’s steps ends up on a creaky floorboard causing Norman to point his gun in their direction. In a suspenseful moment Norman swings the gun around eventually lowering it but in an effective jump scare Money’s phone vibrates and he shoots.
Luckily the bullet doesn’t hit our main characters. Satisfied there’s no one else in the room, Norman drags Money’s body down the hall placing him in the tool room. Alex and Rocky make their way down to the basement using Alex’s phone’s light as a guide but it then dies. That goes to show you kids, if you plan on robbing someone at 2am, charge your phone!
Back upstairs, Norman makes his way through the hall and smells something. His nose leads him to the vestibule where our main characters have left their shoes. Just remember, everything that happens from this point forward is because someone’s feet smell like shit. Norman rushes to the closet and finds out the money is gone.
Downstairs using her phone’s light, Rocky and Alex search for the cellar doors and the two are shocked to find a gagged woman attached to a harness.
They don’t realize the harness is attached to the string that rings the bell we saw earlier. When the woman (played by Franciska Törőcsik) jumps up asking for help, it causes the bell to ring and alerts Norman the group has found his secret.
The woman shows them a piece of newspaper written about the death of Norman’s daughter and the two realize she was the driver, Cindy. Cindy then points to a safe nearby insinuating the keys to her harness are there.
We hear rushed footsteps above and see Norman at the door to the basement with gun in hand.
Using the same code Rocky saw Norman enter in the safe upstairs, they open the safe and use the keys to free Cindy. The three make their way through the basement and find the cellar doors. With the same keys, Alex is able to unlock it but we see a shot of the outside and find out Norman barricaded it earlier.
Alex struggles to break the door open but when they finally open it, Norman is there and shoots wildly into the basement. A bullet grazes Alex, ripping a chunk of his ear off, another hits Rocky’s phone breaking it, and the final bullet hits Cindy in the throat, killing her.
Alex and Rocky run as Norman enters the basement stepping on the pool of Cindy’s blood. He reaches down and realizes he accidentally killed her causing him to break down.
Norman locks the cellar doors again breaking off a screwdriver in the lock to prevent the group from using a key to escape. Alex realizes the keys contain a copy of the front door locks and the two plan to escape that way. As they run through the basement Norman turns off the power and all the lights go out.
Feeling around in the dark, Alex and Rocky get separated as Norman begins to hunt them shooting whenever he hears a sound. He eventually finds Alex and grabs him across shelving units. Realizing he’s run out of bullets, Norman attempts to choke him but Alex pushes against the shelving unit to drop it on Norman and break free.
Alex and Rocky regroup, find the basement door, and escape. Alex jams the crowbar under the door but they turn to see Norman’s rottweiler watching them and growling from the end of the hall.
The two run upstairs and into a bedroom barricading the door with an armoire. Unfortunately both windows are barred and they’re unable to escape. Alex tries to activate the security device to trigger the alarm and alert the police but they are out of range.
Norman escapes the basement and heads to his bedroom to grab a revolver. As he attempts to break into the room, Alex and Rocky notice a vent above them and Alex tells Rocky to escape.
Norman busts through the door with his rottweiler taking the charge and jumping towards Alex. The force pushes him back enough to fall out of the window and land on the skylight of the vestibule below, knocking him out. Yes, it’s the same window that Alex and Rocky both said were barred just moments earlier but ignore that because the movie did as well.
Rocky makes her way through the vents coming across a gap unable to reach the otherside. Meanwhile the rottweiler enters the vents and goes after Rocky. With no other choice Rocky tries to push herself across the gap but falls several feet down.
Meanwhile Alex wakes up as the glass of the skylight beneath him begins to crack. He carefully turns around and attempts to get up but Norman appears from a window above and shoots narrowly missing Alex. The bullet still hits the glass causing it to shatter and drop Alex into the vestibule.
Alex gets up and again tries to trigger the alarm with his device but Norman appears and fires. Alex avoids getting shot and hides in the tool room where he finds Money’s body. Norman hears Alex gasp and rushes to the tool room. Alex grabs a hammer and hits Norman’s arm forcing him to drop the gun as he enters the room.
The two fight with Norman easily gaining the upper hand and beating Alex unmercifully. As Alex begins to lose consciousness, Norman grabs a pair of large garden shears and stabs him.
In the vents, Rocky wakes up and finds a vent that leading to the outside. She succeeds in kicking it open but Norman opens a vent below her and pulls her down into a bedroom. He punches her in the head several times and chokes her unconscious.
Rocky wakes up in Norman’s basement in the same harness Cindy was in with Norman sitting nearby. She begs him to let her go and that none of what he’s doing will bring back his daughter but Norman reveals his plan.
Turns out the reason Norman kidnapped Cindy was because he felt it only fair that since she took his child that she would give him one back. Was Cindy pregnant when Norman kidnapped her? Nope but Norman fixed that too.
In a “what the fuck” moment Norman reveals he impregnated Cindy using a turkey baster, because, in his words, he’s not a rapist. Everyone has a line I suppose. Norman then tells Rocky that since it’s her fault Cindy and their child is dead, Rocky will now take Cindy’s place.
Back upstairs a severely beaten Alex wakes up! Didn’t he get a pair of large deadly shears added to his chest? It’s not fully explained but we see the shears sticking out of Money’s body so Norman accidentally impaled Money’s body thinking it was Alex’s.
Alex grabs the hammer and is able to trick the rottweiler into a room, locking him in. At the front door, he unlocks all the locks and takes the keys.
Downstairs Norman buries Cindy’s body under some tiles and fills it in with tar. He then pulls on the rope attached to Rocky’s harness to lift her up into the air. He cuts open a hole in Rocky’s pants and next opens a small fridge, pulling out a cup filled with his own sperm.
As the what the fuck moments keep rolling in, he takes a turkey baster and fills it with Norman juice.
Norman grabs Rocky’s legs and tells her that he’ll let her go in 9 months. Before he can inject her, Alex appears and strikes Norman with the hammer several times. Alex frees Rocky and handcuffs Norman to the harness.
Now free, Rocky beats the shit out of Norman and jams the turkey baster in his mouth telling him he’ll rot in prison. Alex grabs the backpack of money, the security device, and tells Rocky they can’t involve the cops as if they do, they’ll have to give up the money.
Norman tells them to take the money and demands they leave his house.
Rocky decides to take the money and the two head for the front door of the house. As Alex opens the door he’s shot in the back and dies. Norman is revealed to be the shooter, how the hell did he get free? Who knows.
Rocky makes a run for it, she heads out the door and runs down the street. The same street that we saw her getting dragged in the beginning of the movie so I don’t think this will end well. Norman steps out of the house along with his rottweiler who chases after Rocky.
She’s able to make it to the car but not before the Rottweiler latches onto her backpack forcing her to drop it just outside the car.
After realizing she doesn’t have the keys, Rocky crawls into the trunk and pops it open. She attaches a strap to the open end and crawls back into the backseat. Cujo 2 jumps into the trunk as Rocky pulls it closed and shuts the backseat divider trapping Cujo 2 in the truck.
The trap doesn’t last long as Cujo 2 breaks through the backseat. Rocky thinks quickly and latches the other end of the strap to his collar.
Rocky slides out of the car, grabs the money, but is attacked by Norman who knocks her out. We then see a repeat of the opening scene. Norman tosses Rocky back into the house next to Alex’s corpse. As she lays there a ladybug lands on her hand and she notices the security device in Alex’s hand.
She grabs it and triggers the alarm. The alarm going off in the house causes the blind Norman to panic due to the noise and he starts shooting wildly in the house. Rocky grabs a crowbar and beats him with it gorilla warfare style.
As the alarm ends she hits him several times causing him to fall several feet into the basement where he seemingly dies.
Rocky grabs the money and flees the house as the police arrive. Later that day Rocky and her sister are at a bus station and Rocky overhears a newscaster report that Norman is still alive and in stable condition. The reporter also states that Norman will be allowed back home in a few days meaning the police never realized his crimes.
The film ends as Rocky and her sister make their way through the bus station heading to California.
Review:
Don’t Breathe is one of the most suspenseful movies I’ve reviewed in awhile. There’s great acting, good dialogue, and pace of the movie works really well. Despite the moral ambiguity of all the characters you really worry about what’s going to happen to each of them, except Money.
Sure, the movie sort of shoehorns in the “Rocky’s sister” plot but it still works. It sort of feels like the writer developed a great idea and twist for a villain and then realized we need to care about his victims. It’s a risky thing to do but this is one of those times the risk pays off.
The only character that is off-putting is Money but even his character serves a purpose. His early death ramps up the tension for the other characters making you realize no one is truly safe.
One of my only complaints about Don’t Breathe is the opening scene showing Norman dragging Rocky down the street. This ruins so much of the movie because you now know at one point, he will drag her down the street. Since that scene happens so late in the film it ruins a lot of the tension, you know Norman won’t kill her at least before that scene.
The good news is some, like myself, might actually just completely forget about that scene because of the quick pace of the movie. But then when you remember, tension ruined again.
Don’t Breathe isn’t perfect but almost everything works so well that it’s easily one of my top recommended movies for any horror fans.
Cast IMDB