Dog’s Movie House: “Don’t Breathe 2” Brutal Film That Lacks The Suspense Of The First Film!

“Don’t Breath 2” takes place roughly eight years after the first film and feature’s Lang’s Nordstrom raising a little girl by the name Phoenix (a very good Madelyn Grace). She’s being taught the survival skills of her father yet Nordstrom is paranoid about the world to hold on a little too tight and as she grows up the restrictions are starting to chaff a little bit. Things take a turn for the worse when a group of thugs led by the creepy looking Raylan (played by an appropriately creepy looking Brendan Sexton III) try to take Phoenix from their Detroit home by force. Of course, going up against Nordstrom on his home turf will ensure that doesn’t work out to well for Raylan and his group of dim-bulb neer’do wells. What follows is an efficient and gory exercise in the demonstration of the worst parts of the human condition that can be tough to watch at times.

Hey, I get it: it’s a horror movie, but “Don’t Breathe 2” asks a little too much of the audience. The script by Fed Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues (with Sayagues now taking Alvarez’s spot in the director’s chair) asks us to sympathize with a character in Nordstrom that is not only a cold-blooded killer but also a rapist. It’s tough to do especially since you spend so much time with Nordstrom even though the filmmakers have said the true hero of the story is Phoenix. There’s not enough narrative connective tissue to buy into that conceit although Lang is such a talented actor that he almost pulls it off. Those moments are few and far between as the film has Nordstrom spend most of his time trying to off the invaders in as gruesome a fashion as possible.

Another problem with the film is in the invaders. They are ostensibly part of a group that steals and sells organs on the black market, but boy are they stupid. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again with the expectation of different results, then these galoots are definitely a few fries short of a Happy Meal. Their also very bland, barely registering as characters. One of the fun parts of the original was the relatability the audience had with at least two of the invaders, especially Jane Levy. Levy’s character may have been down to rob the joint, but she was doing it for noble enough reasons and thus made for a relatable protagonist. There’s nothing like that going on in “Don’t Breath 2.”

And don’t get me started on the 3rd act twist. I won’t reveal it here but let’s just say it’s a corker of absurd proportions. How much you enjoy and buy this twist will go a long way in determining how much you enjoy the film. Lang and Phoenix aside, the performances mostly land with a thud and some of the dialogue is truly risable. Ad that to the tone of the picture and you get a narrative mess that looks good on screen. It’s like taking the body of a Corvette and fitting it with the engine of a Pinto. Too bad, because Lang has really put a lot of effort into creating one of the all time great screen monsters.

Too bad they tried to make him a hero. 2 Out Of 5 On Kendog’s Barkometer! So Sayeth The Kendog!

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