Don't Breathe (2016)
- Fede Álvarez originally wanted a completely different ending for the film, but test audiences preferred the one we see today.
- The original script for Don't Breathe was written over a decade before production finally began in 2016.
- Before Stephen Lang was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
Don't Breathe is a 2016 American horror thriller directed by Fede Álvarez. Three young Detroit burglars — Rocky, played by Jane Levy, Alex, played by Dylan Minnette, and Money, played by Daniel Zovatto — target the home of a blind Gulf War veteran, played by Stephen Lang, who reportedly has $300,000 in cash from a legal settlement hidden in his house. What should be a simple robbery against a helpless old man becomes a nightmarish ordeal when the Blind Man proves to be a formidable, violent opponent who has locked down his house and uses his enhanced remaining senses to hunt the intruders through the darkness.
Fede Álvarez created one of the most effectively claustrophobic horror experiences of the decade, turning a single house into a labyrinth of sealed doors, barred windows, and pitch-black rooms where the audience could feel every creaking floorboard. Stephen Lang's Blind Man, initially sympathetic but gradually revealed to be harboring his own horrifying secrets, was a brilliantly ambiguous antagonist — the audience's allegiance shifted constantly as both sides proved capable of terrible acts. The long take in which the house goes completely dark and the characters navigate by touch was a masterful sequence.
Don't Breathe earned $157 million worldwide on a $9.9 million budget.
