Fede Álvarez only has four features, and it’s taken that long for his “no pulled punches” style to grow on me. I really dislike his reboot of Evil Dead (2013), which is all violence and gore all the time. I took that into my first viewing of Don’t Breathe and had an overreaction to the unlikability of the characters. I gave it a 2nd viewing after enjoying Alien: Romulus (2024), and now find my complaint to be absurd. One of the film’s delights is throwing you off balance over who to root for. Everyone reveals themselves to be so much worse, resilient and relentless than their initial impression, including the Rottweiler. A wonderfully lean thriller, grueling in the back hour and really well photographed, with the best use of night vision in a movie ever. It features another of Stephen Lang’s well-considered and under-appreciated performances with the right amount of physical theatricality.
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