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@ryan_the_nixon
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Don’t breathe 2
2021
18
director: Rodo Sayagues
starring: Stephan Lang, Brendan Sexton, Madelyn Grace, Stephanie Arcila, Rocci Williams, Bobby Schofield, Adam Young, Fiona O’Shaughnessy etc
Hiding out for years in an isolated cabin, Norman Nordstrom (Stephan Lang) has taken in and raised a young girl orphaned from a house fire. There Quite existence is shattered when a group of kidnappers show up and take the girl, forcing Norman to leave his safe haven to save her. This was pretty decent, definitely not needed but I still had a fun time with it in places.
My first few positives would be the cinematography and gore. The uncomfortable tone built and the great action as well as the building of tension. The film still managed to be visually creative like the first film. Not to the standard of the first instalment, but there were still some very clever uses of Norman’s lack of eyesight incorporated into the visuals. With Water and the use of low-key lighting or darkness. I also thought the use of gore was excellent. The film turned up the gruesome gore and kills up a lot which I really liked. It gave the scenes a lot more impact and made Norman a much more intimidating force. The film still managed a very uncomfortable tone, due to the innocence of Phoenix (Madelyn Grace) the threat of kidnap from the villains and how they behaved was very uncomfortable and intense to watch. The film managed to create a different kind of tension in parts compared to the previous instalment. And the film did manage to build that edge of your seat tension with particular scenes. It wasn’t as consistent but was achieved well at certain points. Finally, the action was great. The kills were brutal and cleverly incorporated with Norman’s blindness. They were Clever, hard hitting and much more brutal this time around.
My first few negatives would be the rushed background at the beginning. Lack of character motivation or background. And a lot more lapses in the logic. The film completely rushed how Norman helped Phoenix and it lacked any form of background to their relationship, making it feel very rushed and clunky. And it was oddly explained later which didn’t make sense as it could have been done in the beginning to set up a better relationship. What the first film did so well was let the robbers/kidnappers have good background and motivation for what they were doing. This didn’t have any of that, and whilst I appreciate they wanted to throw you straight into the action. The characters felt one dimensional and rushed. This was once again later explained with the twists, but they felt slightly too late, and the villains still fell very flat in terms of depth and background. There was a lot more lapses in the logic here. The first film felt very grounded and knew the limits of Norman as a character whilst still making it very tense and entertaining. This all went out the window here and there was too many unrealistic scenes or illogical character decisions that didn’t really make sense due to Norman. The film wanted to be bigger and more impactful, but in doing that they sacrificed a lot of the logic.
My final few positives would be the interesting dynamic between characters and the dark twists and tone. As well as the great performances and Jumpscares. Plus, the final act was intense. I thought father and daughter dynamic between Norman and Phoenix was interesting. She bought out the more soft and protective side of him, teaching her important life skills, but this was balanced with him being too restrictive and negative towards the outside world. I also thought the film had very dark twists and tone. The twists were completely unexpected and very dark. I commend the film for taking some risks, they were bold and unpredictable and took the film in a completely different and much darker direction. I also thought the Jumpscares were excellent. They weren’t predictable or overused like in a lot of horror films. They were startling and unpredictable and really made a big impact. I also thought the performances were very strong from the two leads. Stephan Lang delivered another powerful and menacing performance here. He was just as intimidating and unpredictable as ever and his performance was great. Madelyn Grace was also fantastic here. For such a young actor she showed a lot of promise. She delivered in the intense and emotional scenes, and she was very charming to watch. Finally, the final act was very intense and was very strong. The dark twist made the stakes and tension extremely high, and the brutal action made for a very strong final act that was very well done.
My final few negatives would be some of the dialogue, the unneeded ending and unfocused tone. Some of the dialogue was poor, it was very generic and made the villains seem stupid. With some unintentionally funny lines that made the tone off in places. I also thought the ending was very unneeded. I found it very strange creatively to kill of the main character without much of a satisfying arc or real change in his character apart from a realisation of his actions. It was just a very mediocre ending. My biggest issue with the film was how tonally unfocused it felt. It was constantly switching which character to sympathise or connect with, and it was way to inconsistent. The film didn’t have a clue what to with its characters, constantly shifting between the usual villain and intimidating character, to sympathising with Norman as an antihero and it just didn’t work.
Overall, don’t breathe 2 is definitely entertaining. And had its creative and tense moments. And I respect that it took some risks with its twists. But it lacked the high tension and inventiveness of the first film. And it never felt it fully knew what it wanted to do with its characters. It was a serviceable sequel but not in the league of the first film.
Overall rating 67/100
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