Don’t Breathe (2016)

☆ ☆ ½

Don’t Breathe (2016) – F. Alvarez

I’ve been trying to decide who is the target audience for this picture (it wasn’t me) and I’ve come to the conclusion that it is a thrill ride meant for young people to watch in the cinema.  In retrospect, I can hear people gasping, ewwing, and perhaps even cheering during the action in the cinema – it would play better in a crowd than alone in headphones (which is how I watched it).  The plot sees three millennial thieves breaking into the house of an old blind veteran in a run-down Detroit neighbourhood after hearing that he has a few hundred grand inside.  Unfortunately for them, the old man is more than they bargained for and they are soon playing a game of cat-and-mouse -- where they are the mice scurrying through the basement catacombs in the creaky old house.  Director Fede Alvarez uses all the tricks of the trade to heighten the tension – but it really is all technique and virtually no plot here.  You’ve paid your admission and you have a 90 minute ride.  (My worry that this might turn into torture porn was fortunately groundless – but it has a few sicko moments for sure).  Not my thing.