I honestly wasn’t planning on reviewing this movie. This was gonna be one of those films I watch on my own free time, not really expecting much out of it because it is after all Don’t Breathe 2, a sequel that I doubt many asked for, even from the biggest supporters of that first film. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but didn’t feel the desire for a follow-up. But since this is Hollywood we’re talking about, anything successful must be squeezed for everything it’s worth, so we got one anyways, and I gotta say, it is not what I was expecting at all.
Don’t Breathe 2 takes place many years after the events of the first film, and we start off by meeting a little girl named Phoenix (Madelyn Grace) running away from an all-too familiar Rottweiler. However, we find out the two are friendly, and not only that, she is apparently the “daughter” of Norman (Stephen Lang), the blind and sadistic killer and rapist from the first film. They seem to be living a fairly calm and peaceful life together, though his over-protectiveness sometimes gets on her nerves. But as these things go, it all crumbles down when a group of men led by Raylan (Brendan Sexton III) invade Norman’s home, and kidnap Phoenix.
In order to dig into everything that makes the film…let’s just say “interesting,” I’ll have to reveal a key piece of info that is revealed about halfway through the film, so consider this your spoiler warning for the rest of this review, though I will not give away any other details or the ending.
So, it turns out Raylan is Phoenix’s real father, and he just got out of jail. And while his plan might seem fine at first, we soon find out that he and his meth cooking and terminally ill wife may not have their daughter’s best interest at heart…to put it lightly. So, what proceeds is a film where Norman goes on a rampage to find Phoenix.
For a while there, it seemed like the film would be a fairly straightforward rehash since the film spends quite a bit of time with the home invasion sequence. But once it’s over, that’s when the film really begins to play around with its character dynamics, and it does so in ways that are pretty bananas. Less forgiving folks will probably want to nope out of the whole thing simply because the film has Norman as the lead this time around, which considering the actions he took in the previous film, it’s understandable. However, I think the film is just a little bit more nuanced than that.
This is not a film of heroes and villains. This is a film about villains fighting villains. It’s an ugly and vile film, one that is very aware of this sensibility, and decides to embrace it, but not necessarily at the expense of forcing a specific moral outlook by having us connect with Norman. The film knows he’s a bad guy, and there are characters within the film that talk about all the bad things he’s done. It is simply indulging deeper into the more icky-oriented genre thrills that defined the first film.
Now, does this mean the film is a rousing success? No. In fact, I would say the conclusion that the film reaches with Norman as a character is not one that it totally earns. It’s also not quite as striking in its style as the first film. Rodo Sayagues takes over as the director this time around, though he still co-wrote the film with Fede Álvarez, like they did with the first. Though Pedro Luque returns as the cinematographer, it’s clear that Sayagues is not quite the visual stylist as Álvarez is. The film is certainly well made, but with the exception of a couple shots and a pretty nifty sequence in the beginning of the home invasion sequence that is designed to look like a single take, there isn’t much in terms of the film’s visual language that goes beyond serviceable.
I wouldn’t consider Don’t Breathe 2 to be a pleasant surprise because this is a film that is as far from pleasant as can be. What I really admire about these movies is just how unabashedly gross and vile they are. It’s far beyond anything you would normally see from a studio horror or thriller film, and it brings an edge of exploitation that rings far more true than some of the movies out there that only use the aesthetics of an exploitation movie, but don’t really follow through on the actual nastiness often associated with the genre. There are some genuinely tense moments, solid suspense building, and some really gnarly violence. Its not as good as the first, and I’m still not entirely sure if it even works at all. It’s a strange film, full of strange choices for a sequel, and depending on how you look at it, it’s either wildly misguided or incredibly bold. I honestly don’t have an answer, but I can say that I liked it.
Don’t Breathe 2 is now out in theaters.