Don't Breathe 2: A Hollow Shell of it's Predecessor

In a lot of ways, watching Rodo Sayaguez's sequel to Fede Alvarez's wonderful 2016 thriller Don't Breathe reminded me of another lackluster sequel to a wonderful film, Stefano Sollima's disappointing Sicario: Day of the Soldado. Actually, now that I type that, I realize that almost every aspect of this film, namely everything from the half-baked expectation subversions to the schlocky imitation of the spirit of the original all the way down to the downright ugly color grading that was so noticeable that it actually did a pretty big number on the overall quality of the film when it really shouldn't have been that big of a deal reminded me of Sicario: Day of the Soldado. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the ugly, unnecessary, unintelligent Don't Breathe 2 tries so hard to capture the essence of the original film without ever taking the time to understand what made the first film so impressive, which is the same fundamental mistake Soldado made. It's the movie equivalent of a child trying to bake the pie she sees on mom's counter, succeeding only in creating a confusing, weird, burnt mess that somewhat resembles a pie. That as well as the fact that the movie also just tends to look like a paper bag visuals-wise. Let's get into this review.

Don't Breathe 2 flips the script on the first film and actually follows the antagonist of the first film, the blind veteran Norman Nordstrom, and his adopted daughter Phoenix as they go head-to-head with a vengeful gang that knows more about Norman's past than he would care them to.

I want to start by stating that the color grade of this movie is one of the most visually unappealing and baffling things I have ever seen in a movie. It's so bad and so unexpectedly so, it had me going what in the world happened? This movie is so insanely washed out and gray, and some portions of the film feel like they were color-corrected by one guy on break at work for a different job. Seriously, I've done far better color grading on my personal computer, and this film's color grade reeks of someone trying to make the movie look "edgy" and "cool" rather than trying to make any of the colors look distinct or, you know, natural in any way, shape, form, or fashion. Don't Breathe 2 is dull on a visual level, and that's about as fundamental as you can get. Granted, if the film had more life and meaning to it than it ended up having, I may have been able to overlook this flaw in favor of talking about some other, more favorable points. But the film's color grading only set a low standard that this film would adhere to in just about every way. Unfortunately for Norman and Co., it doesn't end with just the color grade.

The next thing I dislike about Don't Breathe 2 is that it could have been a very good film. In fact, if it had passed through merely one more set of hands in the writing process, it may have turned into a truly great film. That's because it possesses all of the ingredients that are needed to make a solid movie, but it never expands on them in any meaningful way. A lot of the emotional beats are, well, technically there, and the theoretical dynamics this film is trying to create, especially when it comes to the characters, are some that have sometimes succeeded in the most spectacular of ways. However, this movie absolutely refuses to expand on promising aspects whatsoever. If you've read some of my reviews, you may know that I hate the term "missed opportunity," because it gets used as a way to sound smart while merely saying something along the lines of "this wasn't the kind of movie I wanted to see." But I'll be a monkey's uncle if a missed opportunity isn't what this movie was. Don't Breathe 2 tries to accomplish far, far more than it actually has to, and in doing so, it buries anything meaningful under a sad mountain of dropped subplots, flat supporting characters, unnecessary revelations, and an ending that makes absolutely no sense when viewed through the context of what came before it.

OK, but that's enough about the bad things for now. One thing this film does well is its concept. I already talked about this earlier, and it's in the trailer, so it's not a spoiler at this point: the idea to make Norman Nordstrom the protagonist of the film and then peel back his layers for another protagonist to see is actually kind of an awesome one. It's a smart subversion that honestly should have worked better than it did, and I appreciated this approach from the filmmakers, albeit with one misgiving. Norman worked far better as an antagonist than he did as a protagonist, and his character was never able to escape feeling forced into this sequel. But I digress, because I think that this idea was truly kind of awesome, and if this film could have stripped itself down into a leaner and meaner machine, I can see this concept taking it far, and it kind of pains me to think that we'll never get a retry on this film for a better result because if this film had worked out and clicked in the way its director obviously intended it to, I can easily see myself liking it a lot more than even the first film. But life tends to be disappointing sometimes, and this movie is just an allegory for that. Half of me is joking but to be honest with you, the other half isn't.

It pains me to condemn any film to the "please don't watch this one" category because I understand the work that goes into making one, but I can't really think of anything else to do with Don't Breathe 2. This movie doesn't even fall into the category of somewhat visually stimulating, because like I explained, it's kind of ugly on top of everything else wrong with it. It's an unappealing mess, and it's not a film I desire to revisit anytime soon, if ever, so I would say that this may be a film that's just better left alone. It's a hollow, ugly shell of what came before it, and to be frank, if you want to watch something like it, look no further than the original Don't Breathe, a movie that actually seemed like it had a heart and soul and didn't shamble around like a pale, undersaturated zombie.

Don't Breathe 2 - 5/10

Leviticus 19:32