Movies For Breakfast DON’T BREATHE 2 Review

Could brutal, engaging action and an entertaining pace overpower a tone-deaf and incoherent premise? No…not really.

Synopsis

A blind veteran must use his military training to save a young orphan from a group of thugs who break into his home.

Review
“Don’t Breathe 2” begins with our lead antagonist from the original film raising and training a young girl named Phoenix (Madelyn Grace, very good) on how to survive if attacked. As we learn, the blind man (Stephen Lang, reprising his once-villainous role) has appointed himself as this young girl’s father, telling her nice, sweet stories of her mother who was killed in a house fire. Together with their Rottweiler Shadow (also once-villainous) and a budding sympathetic Army Ranger (Stephanie Arcila), it makes for the perfect imperfect family. Successfully erasing the protagonist’s sins from the first film. Right?

Well…as expected, things take a dangerous turn as some gang members storm the blind man’s house (in a very entertaining, well-shot sequence of bloody events) and take his “daughter” hostage. From there, it’s the usual story of an old dog learning new tricks (or repracticing old ones) to save the little girl. It’s John Wick meets Taken…if John Wick was a former rapist/murderer who has gained an unrealistic change of heart over 8 years. Aside from a midway twist that establishes the true identity of the little girl’s captors and a disturbing twist later on that somewhat elevates the stakes, that is all there is to “Don’t Breathe 2”. Bloody action, an entertaining pace, solid twists, solid tension and shrewd foreshadowing. However, is that enough to make a good sequel?

Sadly, no. While Stephen Lang makes well of his material and gives a solid performance of a terribly flawed man getting a second chance at redemption (or humanity), this is a character development that isn’t exactly earned. “Don’t Breathe 2” only works if the audience gains amnesia and pretends its predecessor doesn’t exist. As a sequel, all of these redemptive traits come off as incoherent and inconsistent with the terrifying monster we were introduced to in Fede Álvarez’s original film (Álvarez taking the position of just co-writer and producer this time around). Not to say that this film totally lets its blind protagonist completely off the hook. He admits to his horrible past, is forced to confront his past atrocities when brought to light in front of his daughter and even has a semi-sweet “Come to Jesus” moment towards the end. All of this would (kinda) work if he still didn’t manage to resort to his baser, more savage impulse – violence.

Now look, this is still “Don’t Breathe 2”. Violence is to be expected. People are expected to be killed – viciously. But far be it from me to not decry this film of not keeping its twisted (im)morals in check. Either go all in with the nihilism or don’t go in at all. Taking the “Terminator 2” approach and inserting the character of Phoenix as a filler for the protagonist’s humanity muddies the waters of this film. It’s a copout for its protagonist to come off as a good boy who kills for good, no longer for grief or personal gain. Also, in regards to the film’s midway twist, the waters are muddied even more as the audience is placed with a decision to root for one sicko in place of another. With this, “Don’t Breathe 2” breaks the cardinal rule of insulting its audience’s intelligence.

Like I stated before, the film is not all bad. Director Rodo Sayagues (in his impressive directorial debut) serves as a nice surrogate for colleague Álvarez, nicely ratcheting up the tension throughout and directing a nice long take of Phoenix initially eluding her captors. The bloody violence is well-shot and well-choregraphed. The violent sound design is also great – every landing punch, bone crack and gunshot is felt intensely. However, in contrast to the original, there’s not as much as fun or tension with silence playing a key factor in eluding (or besting) the blind man. Sayagues plays things fast and hard – sometimes not to the film’s benefit as it doesn’t give the plot nor the film’s pace time to breathe (no pun intended). Extracting the human factor of Phoenix’s character from the film, “Don’t Breathe 2” could’ve served as a more effective sequel if it embraced its nihilism full tilt. Pit the murderous rapist against four or more murderous bastards and you have earned yourself a no-holds-barred, bare bones film. It’s Freddy vs. Jason. Whoever wins, who cares. Screw ‘em both. Let the sick and twisted games begin. Frankly, that’s a sequel I’d be more eager to watch.

Closing Thoughts
“Don’t Breathe 2” is brutal, tense, entertaining, even a little humorous. But it isn’t “earned”. Not in the sense that its protagonist’s 360-degree humane turn is excused or even believed. “Don’t Breathe 2” suffers from an identity crisis in its lead character’s development and the film’s entertainment value is unfortunately weighed down by this. The violent means doesn’t justify the film’s would-be tearjerker ends. A reworking of motivation and intent could have made this a solid follow-up but instead, it is let down and lowered to usual Hollywood fare of generic hero complexes and false redemption arcs. At least it’s short and entertaining, right?

Trailer