''Don't Breathe'' is a 2016 American
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
co-produced and directed by
Fede Álvarez
Federico Javier Álvarez Mattos (; born February 9, 1978) is a Uruguayan filmmaker. He is best known for directing the films ''Evil Dead (2013 film), Evil Dead'' (2013), ''Don't Breathe'' (2016), and ''Alien: Romulus'' (2024).
Early life
Álvare ...
, who co-wrote it with
Rodo Sayagues. It is the first installment in the ''
Don't Breathe'' franchise. The film stars
Jane Levy,
Dylan Minnette,
Daniel Zovatto, and
Stephen Lang
Stephen Lang (born July 11, 1952) is an American stage and screen actor. He gained fame for his role as main antagonist Miles Quaritch, Colonel Miles Quaritch in James Cameron's ''Avatar (2009 film), Avatar'' (2009), for which he won the Saturn ...
, and focuses on three home intruders who find themselves trapped and hunted in the home of their blind target.
The project, originally titled ''A Man in the Dark'', was announced in early 2014, with Álvarez directing, Sayagues writing, and Levy starring. In contrast to his previous work on ''
Evil Dead
''Evil Dead'' is an American horror franchise created by Sam Raimi consisting of five feature films and a television series. The series follows various characters as they battle demonic forces unleashed by an ancient book called the ''Necrono ...
'' (2013), Álvarez decided the project would have less blood, an original storyline, more suspense, and no dependence on supernatural elements—which he felt were overused.
Principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...
began in June 2015, and wrapped in July in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
.
''Don't Breathe'' premiered at
South by Southwest
South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...
on March 12, 2016, and was theatrically released on August 26, by
Sony Pictures Releasing
Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group (formerly known as the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group until 2013, and abbreviated as SPMPG) is a division of Sony Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment to manage its motion picture operatio ...
. The film grossed over $157 million world and received positive reviews.
A sequel, ''
Don't Breathe 2'', was released in August 2021.
Plot
Rocky, Alex, and Money are three Detroit delinquents who make a living by breaking into houses and stealing valuables. Rocky longs to move to California with her younger sister, Diddy, and escape from their abusive mother and her alcoholic boyfriend. To the trio's frustration, their
fence
A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or net (textile), netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its ...
keeps undervaluing the items they bring.
Money receives a tip from their fence that
Gulf War
, combatant2 =
, commander1 =
, commander2 =
, strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems
, page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...
veteran Norman Nordstrom has $300,000 in cash in his house in an abandoned Detroit neighborhood. It was reportedly a settlement after a wealthy young woman, Cindy Roberts, killed Norman's daughter in a car accident. The three spy on the house and learn that Norman is blind.
At night, the gang approach the house, drug Nordstrom's
rottweiler, then break in. Money puts a
sleeping gas bottle in Nordstrom's bedroom. Seeing a locked basement door, he assumes the loot is hidden in there and shoots the lock. The noise wakes up Nordstrom, who overpowers Money, takes the gun, and kills him while Rocky, horrified, watches silently.
Rocky witnesses Nordstrom open a hidden safe to check his valuables. After he leaves, she opens it and takes the cash. However, he finds her and Alex's shoes and realizes there are more intruders, then returns to find the safe empty.
Rocky and Alex evade Nordstrom and enter the basement. There, they find a restrained and gagged pregnant woman who reveals herself to be Cindy Roberts. Rocky and Alex free her and attempt to open the storm cellar door. Nordstrom shoots at them, unintentionally killing Cindy. He breaks down and cries in distress over her body. Nordstrom then shuts off the lights, plunging the basement into darkness. After a blind chase and struggle, Alex knocks him out and they flee upstairs.
After blocking the basement door, they encounter the dog, who has awakened, and flee into the bedroom. Rocky escapes the room through a ventilation duct. Alex falls out of a window onto a skylight and is knocked out. When he awakens, Nordstrom shoots out the skylight, corners him in the utility room, and stabs him with a pair of garden shears. The dog pursues Rocky through the vents before she is captured by Nordstrom.
Rocky wakes up restrained in the basement. Nordstrom reveals that Cindy was pregnant with a "replacement" for his daughter. He then prepares to artificially inseminate her using a turkey baster, promising to let her go after she gives him a child. Alex, who survived by tricking Nordstrom into stabbing Money's corpse, saves Rocky and handcuffs Nordstrom.
Rocky and Alex try to leave through the front door. Nordstrom breaks free and shoots Alex dead. Rocky flees as the dog pursues her. She traps it in her car trunk but gets captured again by Nordstrom. After being dragged back inside his house, she disorients him by setting off the alarm system, then hits him repeatedly in the head with a crowbar and pushes him into the basement. The gun fires into Nordstrom's side as he falls. Believing him dead, Rocky escapes before the police arrive.
Later, Rocky and Diddy see a news report about the incident. Nordstrom, who is recovering in the hospital and in stable condition, is reported to have killed two intruders (Alex and Money) in self-defense. He does not mention Rocky, Cindy or the stolen cash. Rocky and Diddy board a train to Los Angeles.
Cast and characters
*
Stephen Lang
Stephen Lang (born July 11, 1952) is an American stage and screen actor. He gained fame for his role as main antagonist Miles Quaritch, Colonel Miles Quaritch in James Cameron's ''Avatar (2009 film), Avatar'' (2009), for which he won the Saturn ...
as The Blind Man, named Norman Nordstrom, a veteran of the
Gulf War
, combatant2 =
, commander1 =
, commander2 =
, strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems
, page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...
who was blinded by shrapnel
*
Jane Levy as Rocky, a Detroit thief who wants to escape to California for a better life
*
Dylan Minnette as Alex, a Detroit thief and Rocky's friend
*
Daniel Zovatto as Money,
a Detroit thief and Rocky's boyfriend
* as Cindy, who is connected to the Blind Man through tragedy
* Emma Bercovici as Diddy, Rocky's younger sister
* Christian Zagia as Raul, a fence
* Katia Bokor as Ginger, Rocky's abusive mother
* as Trevor, Ginger's boyfriend
Production
Development
Fede Álvarez
Federico Javier Álvarez Mattos (; born February 9, 1978) is a Uruguayan filmmaker. He is best known for directing the films ''Evil Dead (2013 film), Evil Dead'' (2013), ''Don't Breathe'' (2016), and ''Alien: Romulus'' (2024).
Early life
Álvare ...
noted that making the film was, in some ways, a reaction to his debut film ''
Evil Dead
''Evil Dead'' is an American horror franchise created by Sam Raimi consisting of five feature films and a television series. The series follows various characters as they battle demonic forces unleashed by an ancient book called the ''Necrono ...
'' (2013), specifically the criticisms that the film had too much blood, focused too much on shocking the audience, and was a remake. In response, Álvarez decided to make ''Don't Breathe'', an original story that contained less blood and focused more on suspense over shocking audiences.
He wanted to avoid making a film dealing with the supernatural, as he felt that was too trendy.
Choosing to make the antagonist blind was a result of deliberately taking abilities away from him; Álvarez explained
Álvarez has called the film an "exercise in reversal" noting that the film deliberately subverts tropes such as the fact that the house in question is a "nice house on a scary street" as opposed to the opposite, or that the movie is a home invasion story told from the point of view of the invaders.
Casting
On May 1, 2015,
Daniel Zovatto joined the cast.
On May 22, 2015,
Dylan Minnette was cast in the film, and on June 18, 2015,
Jane Levy and
Stephen Lang
Stephen Lang (born July 11, 1952) is an American stage and screen actor. He gained fame for his role as main antagonist Miles Quaritch, Colonel Miles Quaritch in James Cameron's ''Avatar (2009 film), Avatar'' (2009), for which he won the Saturn ...
joined the cast.
Filming
Principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...
began on June 29, 2015. Though the film is set in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
, it was primarily shot in
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
; only a few views of Detroit were actually filmed there.
Álvarez estimated that the film cost roughly half as much as ''Evil Dead'', and welcomed the change, as it allowed for less studio interference.
Filming
wrapped in August 2015.
Release
The film premiered at
South by Southwest
South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...
on March 12, 2016,
and was theatrically released on August 26, 2016, by
Screen Gems
Screen Gems is an American film production company owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate, Sony Group Corporation. ''Screen Gems'' has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the de ...
.
Reception
Critical response
On
review aggregation website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 245 reviews, with an average rating of 7.10/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Don't Breathe'' smartly twists its sturdy premise to offer a satisfyingly tense, chilling addition to the home invasion genre that's all the more effective for its simplicity."
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, which assigns a rating to reviews, gives the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Audiences polled by
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data.
Background
Ed Mintz, who ...
gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
Dennis Harvey of ''
Variety'' called ''Don't Breathe'' "a muscular exercise in brutal, relentless peril that should please genre fans."
Jim Vejvoda of
IGN
''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
awarded 8.8/10 and wrote, "Director Fede Álvarez delivers a lean, very mean thrill ride with ''Don't Breathe'', tapping into several primal human fears and further establishing himself as one of the genre filmmakers to keep an eye on in the years ahead."
Peter Travers
Peter Joseph Travers (born June 27, 1943) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film i ...
of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
'' gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, writing: "This is some weird, twisted shit. Don't groan when I say ''Don't Breathe'' is a home-invasion thriller. Director Fede Álvarez is as good as it gets when it comes to playing with things that go bump in the night."
Amy Nicholson of
MTV
MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
wrote in a positive review, "Álvarez knows the size of his ambitions. He's written one great ghoul, surrounded him with targets, and simply let him let rip." ''
The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American Technology journalism, technology news website headquarters, headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, cons ...
'' called it "an impressive script-flip from the 1967 classic ''
Wait Until Dark''". Álvarez says he wrote the script before watching ''Wait Until Dark''. Jim Hemphill of ''Filmmaker Magazine'' called it "the best American horror film in twenty years."
Box office
''Don't Breathe'' grossed $89.2 million in North America and $67.9 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $157.1 million, against a production budget of $9.9 million.
Due to its low production budget, the film became a
sleeper hit
In the entertainment industry, a sleeper hit refers to a film, television series, music release, video game or other entertainment product that was initially unsuccessful on release, but eventually became a surprise success. A sleeper hit may have ...
and was considered a large financial success, with a net profit of $59.1 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.
For Sony Pictures, it became their second late-summer surprise hit of 2016, following ''
Sausage Party''.
''Don't Breathe'' was released in the United States and Canada on August 26, 2016, and was originally projected to gross $11–14 million from 3,051 theaters in its opening weekend, with some estimates going as high as $20 million,
and many publications noting it could be the first film to dethrone ''
Suicide Squad
The Suicide Squad is an antihero/supervillain team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The first version of the Suicide Squad debuted in ''The Brave and the Bold'' #25 (September 1959) and the second and modern version, cre ...
'' from the top of the box office. It made $1.9 million from Thursday night preview screenings, at 2,500 theaters,
and $10 million on its opening day. It fell just 1.5% on Saturday, earning $9.8 million, which is uncommon as R-rated horror films tend to do well on their first day and drop sharply in revenue from their second day onward.
Compared to other 2016 horror films, ''
Lights Out'' had a drop of 22%, while ''
The Conjuring 2'' fell by 15%.
In total, it grossed $26.4 million in its opening weekend, far above initial projections by 120% and easily displacing ''Suicide Squad'' to take the top spot at the box office. It was the biggest original horror debut of the year (besting ''
10 Cloverfield Lane''), the biggest Screen Gems August opening ever (beating ''
Takers'') and the biggest debut for an R-rated original horror film since ''
The Conjuring'' in 2013.
Following its first-place finish, the film continued to dominate the box office for the second weekend, earning $15.8 million and an estimated $19.7 million for the four day
Labor Day
Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...
holiday, one of the best numbers ever for the long holiday weekend. As a result, it became only the second horror film to top the weekend box office two weekends in a row since 2014. The
second weekend drop was only -40%, a remarkable feat considering the fact that horror films typically tumble at least 60% or more in their second weekend. The gradual drop was due to the holiday. It took only 11 days to surpass Álvarez's previous film, the ''
Evil Dead
''Evil Dead'' is an American horror franchise created by Sam Raimi consisting of five feature films and a television series. The series follows various characters as they battle demonic forces unleashed by an ancient book called the ''Necrono ...
'' reboot.
Although the film fell to third place in its third weekend as a result of being overtaken by ''
Sully'' and ''
When the Bough Breaks'', it continued to witness strong holds by falling 49% after adding another 333 theaters.
Outside North America, the film's biggest debuts were in the United Kingdom ($1.3 million), Germany ($1.3 million), Brazil ($1.2 million) Mexico ($1.2 million) and Australia ($1 million).
It scored the third biggest opening of the year for a Hollywood film in Korea with $4.5 million.
It's on pace to become the highest-grossing horror film in Uruguay.
Accolades
Sequel
In November 2016, writer and director Fede Álvarez announced that a sequel was in the works. Producer Sam Raimi commented on the sequel and was quoted saying, "It's only the greatest idea for a sequel I've ever heard. I'm not kidding." In November 2018, Álvarez announced the script for the sequel was completed.
In January 2020, the title was announced as ''
Don't Breathe 2''. The film was to begin principal photography in April 2020, with a script co-written by Rodo Sayagues and Álvarez, but was delayed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
Eventually, Sayagues served as director, while the latter served as a producer. On October 8, 2020, Lang revealed filming had completed. The film was released on August 13, 2021.
See also
*
List of films featuring home invasions
*
List of films featuring psychopaths and sociopaths
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{Sam Raimi
2016 films
2016 crime thriller films
2016 horror thriller films
American crime thriller films
American horror thriller films
Crime horror films
Films about blind people in the United States
Films about kidnapping in the United States
Films about dysfunctional families
Films about rape in the United States
Films directed by Fede Álvarez
Films produced by Fede Álvarez
Films produced by Rodo Sayagues
Films produced by Sam Raimi
Films scored by Roque Baños
Films set in 2016
Films set in Detroit
Films shot in Detroit
Films shot in Hungary
Films with screenplays by Fede Álvarez
Films with screenplays by Rodo Sayagues
Ghost House Pictures films
Good Universe films
Films about home invasion
Saturn Award–winning films
Screen Gems films
Stage 6 Films films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
English-language horror thriller films
English-language crime thriller films
Films about psychopaths and sociopaths