Review #138: Don't Breathe 2 (2021)

This review was originally written in October 2021.

October 2021 Horror Movie Review #24- Don't Breathe 2 (2021)

Once again, I was too busy to watch my regularly-scheduled zombie film (sorry but not really, Poultrygeist). So this is another movie we saw at the Drive-In a week or so ago.

It's been a while since I saw Don't Breathe, so when this movie started out I was a little confused as to how it followed after the previous one. A quick recap- Don't Breathe told the story of a group of ne'er-do-wells who planned on breaking into a blind man's house to steal some settlement money he was awarded after a wrongful death legal suit, but when they got into his house it turns out the guy's an ex-Navy Seal and he stalks and kills most of them. However, it turns out he's got a girl chained up in his basement (the rich girl who killed his daughter in a hit-and-run, hence the settlement) and he has impregnated her in order to give himself a new daughter? So the hapless victim turns into the monstrous villain. The pregnant girl dies and the surviving ne'er-do-well manages to steal the cash and burn the house down I think, so there's some feeling of comeuppance at the ending.

This movie starts off eight years later, the blind man has a daughter (?) and is either the primary or secondary protagonist in this film (??) and some local organ-harvesting thugs break into his house for some nefarious purpose. Now, full disclosure (but also with no spoilers) there ends up being some twists in here, some nuance, and the movie actually does a fair bit to throw you off the scent of what it's doing, and you won't really have the whole story until the last like twenty minutes of the film. In that regard, it serves up a satisfying and clever narrative that can be entertaining... if you kind of turn your brain off for most of it.

The thing is, despite the twists and turns the plot takes, the blind Navy Seal kidnapper/rapist/murderer IS arguably the main protagonist. It was kind of a bold move to do that- I mean, did they want or expect viewers to sort of, forget why it was okay to root for the ne'er-do-wells in the first film? The guy kidnapped a girl, inseminated her, and kept her as a slave in a literal dungeon. And now, we're supposed to root for him in this movie, just because there's someone else out there who may or may not be worse than him. Is that a good move on the filmmakers' part? I don't think so. Will it ruin the movie? No, like I said, you can turn your brain off and enjoy this thrill-packed revenge flick. But it IS bothersome, and that needs to be addressed. I also think it's quite silly how easily this blind man is able to know where everyone and everything around him is located (it made some sense in the first film- it took place entirely in his house, after all, so he knows his way around intimately well, but much of this one takes place in an entirely new environment) but hey, just imagine a Marvel Studios logo before the film and you can forgive basically all of that.

All in all this was an alright film, though not as good as the first and I don't plan on re-watching it.

Overall Rating: 5/10 Watertight Panic Rooms

Hero of the Viewing: My wife Lisa! She actually put together what was really going on WAY before I did. Good job Lisa!