The Blind Man now has a daughter, who is kidnapped
by a gang of thugs seeking to harvest her organs. HORROR
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Don't Breathe 2 (2021)Directed by Rodo Sayagues
Written by Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues Starring Stephen Lang, Madelyn Grace, Brendan Sexton III, Stephanie Arcila Sequel to 2016's Don't Breathe |
Fede Alvarez did a survey of what people wanted a sequel more to: Evil Dead or Don’t Breathe. Well, unsurprisingly, fans overwhelmingly picked the former. Instead, and here’s the surprising part, Alvarez ignored the fan response and confirmed a sequel to the latter. He should have listened to the fans because this film seemed to be struck with bad luck. There was the banking on getting star Jane Levy back. Problem is, she absolutely refused to return. No reason given. So, a new story had to be whipped up. One which would make the audience root for the antagonist of the first film as he would be the protagonist here. Obviously, to accomplish this, the whole chaining women in his basement and impregnating them with his semen would need to be addressed. You would think at least. Don’t Breathe 2 had different plans.
Before I delve more into one of the most problematic ways to make this character a sympathetic hero, I want to praise Stephen Lang’s performance. To his credit, he is phenomenal. He really takes advantage of being the star this time around and seems to be having fun. So, performance wise, he’s great. If only the filmmakers could match his excellence. Like I was alluding to, there is almost no attempt made to sympathize this character. Believe it or not, even with what he’s done, it’s not impossible either. Rob Zombie did it with the Firefly family. But this film never leans into the disgusting things he did or gives us clean cut characters to root for instead. The apparent solution was to give us a group of pretty despicable human beings and Lang giving a monologue at the end. That’s it. The plot isn’t even necessarily all that different from the first. Before I end this, I want to also give some praise to the gore. Smartly choosing brutal gore over suspense as to not repeat themselves, there’s some pretty gnarly moments. Boy, this film chooses the most problematic way to make us root for Lang’s character. Simply by choosing to not really acknowledge the original film’s events. Again, other filmmakers have proven you can root for the bad guys. It’s possible. But just having Lang give a great performance and upping the gore isn’t enough. |
Don't Breathe isn't a film that really warranted a sequel in the first place. Jane Levy got away with the money, and the Blind Man's crimes went unnoticed by the cops. The threat of mutually assured destruction kept things quiet. But here we are, five years in real time, eight years in movie time, and we have Don't Breathe 2, a sequel that barely feels like a continuation of the same story. For one thing, the Blind Man is a noble father figure now who saves dogs and kills drug dealers. Somewhere along the line, Fede Alvarez decided to turn Stephen Lang's character into the blind John Wick, forgetting of course the reason audiences are afraid of this guy. He impregnated a teenager against her will and locked her in his basement, then tried to do it again after he accidentally killed the first girl. No amount of rebranding will erase that sin.
The Blind Man (Lang) kidnapped a little girl from a burning house, then raised her as his own daughter. Phoenix (Grace) sees him as her father and knows no other life, and when her real father, a psychotic meth dealer (Sexton) comes a-callin', she learns the truth. She gets kidnapped because her mother (who is strangely not in the IMDb credits) needs a heart transplant from breathing in all them meth fumes. So, Rape Dad fights Meth Dad to the death for the honor of being Father of the Year. So much of this character is ignored or pushed away to make him fit the protagonist model. Not to mention the forced dialogue and various moments that are ripped straight from better movies. The best thing about the film are its gnarly kills, which do stand out. Don't Breathe 2 does not need to exist, but since it does, it should've actually built on the already established world. Instead, it picks and chooses which pieces to build upon, making it feel completely disjointed. Also, can we please stop killing dogs to make movie characters sympathetic? It worked exactly once. |