Viewing Don’t Breathe by Fede Alvarez was an intense experience. My partner and I suffered tension and anxiety, with strong grips almost the entire time. It’s been a while since I’ve been engaged in this way at the theater. It reminded me how I felt when my parents took me to see War of the Worlds (2005). Growing up it was a rarity to be taken to movies outside the PG rating, and to see films above that rating was well researched before going – violence/action and sci-fi were pretty much a good-to-go. Don’t Breathe doesn’t have giant alien machines destroying the world and capturing anyone in their path, but it is about an hour’s worth of the trapped-in-the-house sequence of that film, with great immersive tension; you feel as if you’re inside the house with the characters. When they hide or quickly dodge, the very good and clever filmmaking allows the viewer to feel as if they are also hiding and dodging with them while not from the use of the handheld or shaky cam style.
