By: Andrew Wing

Don’t Breathe 2 is a 2021 American horror thriller film directed by Rodo Sayagues in his directorial debut. Sayagues co-wrote the screenplay with Fede Álvarez, the director of the first film, and it was produced by Álvarez, Robert Tapert, who also produced The Grudge (2004) and Drag Me to Hell (2009), and the legendary Sam Raimi, who is most known for directing the Evil Dead series and the Spider-Man trilogy (2002-2007). The film is a sequel to the 2016 film Don’t Breathe, and stars Stephen Lang, reprising his role as Norman Nordstrom / “The Blind Man”. Also starring in the film in supporting roles are Brendan Sexton III as the antagonist Raylan, and Madelyn Grace as Phoenix, Norman’s adopted daughter.

Following the critical and commercial success of the first film, talks for a sequel began just three months after its initial release in November 2016, with Álvarez set to return as the film’s director. However, in January 2020, Rodo Sayagues replaced Álvarez as director. Production began in Serbia during August of last year and wrapped up in October.

Don’t Breathe 2 was theatrically released in the United States on August 13, 2021, by Sony Pictures Releasing.

THE GOOD

I will speak for all movie lovers like myself when I say that I was blown away when I watched Don’t Breathe for the first time in 2016. I was excited going into it because of the uniqueness of the story dealing with a blind guy, but I never thought it would turn out to be easily one of the best American horror films of my lifetime. As I said, I was obsessed with the premise of the movie, but what really stuck out to me was the performance of Stephen Lang as “The Blind Man”. He was just so damn scary the whole movie and you just knew from watching that if it was you in that situation and you had to escape him, you would be toast. And as you will come to find out the more you get into my review, there are many things different between the original and this sequel, but the one constant is Stephen Lang’s performance.

Lang’s performance in the original really took me by surprise based on the fact that I really did not know much about him. I recognized his face from his supporting roles in films like Avatar (2009) and one of my Dad’s all-time favorites Tombstone (1993), but because of his performance in both the original and this, I now know I will never forget him. It really is remarkable how easy he makes playing a blind man look. Yes, I know the movie industry and production teams probably trained him and made him wear some sort of contacts that black out his vision, but still it is fascinating to me. Forget the fight scenes and all the choreography that goes into that, just the scenes of him walking his dog, talking to his adopted daughter, and doing basic daily functions did it for me. Lastly, I thought Lang did a great job showcasing his range as an actor in this movie with some of the more emotional scenes that took place, and I’m curious to see what else he does in the future because he has certainly made a fan out of me.

With any sequel to an original movie, it is very important that you don’t just make the same movie twice, and that was definitely not the case with Don’t Breathe 2. The overall story was new and intriguing, picking up eight years after the events of the first film with plenty of new characters. Despite its relatively short runtime of 90 minutes and some change, those involved with the movie did a great job at making all the new characters feel important to the story due to them giving us a great amount of insight into how they got where they were.

Also, I just have to mention how good the sound editing was throughout the entire film. It just added so much to all of the intense scenes and it kept you on the edge of your seat.

THE BAD

As much as I loved the original, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t skeptical when I heard they were releasing a sequel to this. I know it doesn’t make sense to say I didn’t want a sequel to a movie I really enjoyed, but I just didn’t for some reason. I loved what they did with the original so much that I didn’t want its reputation to get tarnished by a sequel that some look at as just a “cash grab”. And while I don’t think the sequel was so bad that it hurts the reputation of the first film, I still think they could have gone without it but that’s just me.

The biggest thing that stuck out to me in a negative way when watching this is just that there was something missing, and that something is a good guy/protagonist that you want to cheer for. In the first movie, we had the Rocky character portrayed by Jane Levy who yes, I know was a thief who robbed The Blind Man’s home, but we still cheered for her because she was doing it so she could get enough money to escape to California to give her and her sister a better life. In this, they try to make “The Blind Man” the good guy, but I don’t know about you, I just had a hard time cheering for him after seeing some of the brutal things he did in the original movie.

The most frustrating part about this movie for me was just the fact that it really wasn’t that scary. The original film was legitimately terrifying and it felt when watching that there was a jump scare almost every scene with how well done it was. With this, I wasn’t truly scared one bit and I can’t put my finger on why this movie wasn’t scary. Maybe it was the unrealistic nature of some of the situations the characters found themselves in, or it could have just been the disappointing performances of the majority of the supporting characters. It honestly felt like it was more of a ‘drama’ at times than a ‘horror’ because of the family elements they included and that was unfortunate to say the least.

THE VERDICT

Despite it clearly being a step down from what we got with the original film back in 2016, Don’t Breathe 2 is still an enjoyable watch for fans of the original with another thrillingly imposing performance from Stephen Lang as “The Blind Man”.