Last weekend, the home-invasion thriller Don't Breathe opened at No. 1 in the North American box office, earning more than $26 million, and prompting a lot of conversations about one particularly Super-Awful Scene. We'll get khổng lồ that moment in a bit, but first, a recap of the movie's admirably simple set-up: In a bleak, barren neighborhood of Detroit, three young thieves (played by Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, & Daniel Zovatto) break into the dilapidated trang chủ of a blind war veteran (*Avatar'*s Stephen Lang), looking for the six-figure sum he's rumored lớn keep hidden somewhere inside. Why the big windfall? It turns out the sightless survivor—whose name is never given—lost his beloved daughter years before, when she was mowed down by a wealthy teenaged girl, forcing the killer's well-to-do parents lớn pay off the blind man.
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When the robbers break into the home, though, they discover that their intended victim is far more powerful (and devious) than they expected. He fights back forcefully—killing one of the thieves early on in the process—and halfway through the movie, we learn why he's so protective of his property (trigger warnings abound for this next section, so be advised).
As it turns out, the blind man has kidnapped the young woman who killed his daughter in that oto accident, locked her up in his basement, & impregnated her, so that he can have another child. But when he shoots và kills his young prisoner during the robbery attempt, he decides that Levy's character, Rocky, should instead be the one to bear his offspring. He places her in a harness, cuts open her pants, và attempts khổng lồ impregnate her using a turkey baster. (His attempt lớn justify his actions: "I'm not a rapist. I never forced myself on
There's another semi-twist at the very over of Don't Breathe—after being left for dead, it turns out the bad guy still livezzzzzzzzzz—but it's the baster scene that's spurred lots of online chatter. As the film heads into what will likely be another box-office-besting weekend, lisinoprilfast.com's Angela Watercutter & Brian Raftery decided to lớn talk about film's unsettling conclusion.
Brian Raftery: Angela, before we get into the last đôi mươi minutes or so of Don't Breathe, I wanted khổng lồ talk briefly about the break-ins, breakdowns, và fake-outs that preceded it—because they play a big part in how the movie's twist played for me. As you know, I have a deep affection for grody little thrillers—my favorite movie of the year remains gory but gratifying Green Room, an escape-caper I annoyingly bring up during lisinoprilfast.com's Slack convos at least once a week—and so I am very much in the test for a late-summer no-brainer lượt thích Don't Breathe. & the film definitely gave me a giddy, dopey B-movie charge at times: I loved, for example, how Lang's sinewy build & sudden movements gave him a terrifying, almost lupine-like physicality (he's one of the better movie monsters in recent memory). I winced during the moments of claustrophobic silence, as we watched the thieves try to lớn avoid detection. I dug some of Fede Alvarez's more playful turns, such as an unexpected fake-out in the laundry room, & the outta-nowhere appearances by that Cujo-like guard dog. Và I was impressed by the fact that the camerawork & editing are so crisp and precise, at times you almost feel lượt thích you're trapped in the house with these thieves...
...which is also the movie's biggest problem: The more time you spend with the main characters, you realize just how reductive and convenient they are, even for a movie lượt thích this. Money, the cocky goof played by Zovatto, speaks & swags with such hilariously misinformed force-fed faux-cool, he reminded me of Poochie (Sample line: "You think just because you jerk off to lớn her Instagram selfies, that makes you a Romeo?" Woah! Radical slang, dude! See you next time you go swingin' on the flippity-flop!) He's supposedly in a relationship with Rocky, but their connection is never depicted with any conviction; they may as well be two coworkers making small talk on a smoke break. Rocky's white-trash backstory, meanwhile, is cartoonishly overdrawn, but at least her decision khổng lồ get her younger sister out of Detroit gives her motivation—as opposed lớn Alex, the nice, smart, seemingly well-off kid played by Minnette. Why is here again? Does he need the dough? Is he really in love with Rocky? Does anyone buy that these three would hang out in the real world, let alone exist in it?
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It wasn't so much that the thieves were stupid—though you could certainly find a lot of holes in their plans, especially Rocky's impulsive attempt khổng lồ steal from the loudest electronic safe ever made while trying to avoid making noise—it was that they were so stupidly rendered. Horror flicks and thrillers are often populated with ding-dongs; that's partly what makes it so easy for us to accept, and even cheer on, their demise. But I think Alvarez intended the Don't Breathe trio, or at least Rocky & Alex, to be empathy-inducing good kids who were desperate for a way out, not forgettable grist for the murder-mill. Their disposability is the main reason why I'd lost my patience with Don't Breathe long before we got lớn the basement: Too many potentially nifty sequences were undermined by the characters' lame-stain dialogue or "wait, what?" decision-making. It's a movie I wanted lớn be much, much smarter in its dumb-downness.
Oof! That vent was big enough lớn fit a raging Rotweiler. Angela, please break in: Did the pre-twist parts of Don't Breathe work for you? How did they affect what you thought of the big reveal? & is "An Unexpected Fake-Out in the Laundry Room" the best unused Fall Out Boy title of all time?
Angela Watercutter: First off, Brian, I'm leaving that Fall Out Boy bit alone. (Don't give them any bright ideas, man.) Second, I'm firmly in the camp that doesn't really expect a whole lot in the way of sense or logic in horror movies, but—you're right—these kids were capital-D Dumb. Like, I appreciated Alex stepping in with the really-on-the-nose "That's larceny!" exposition every so often, but it seemed lượt thích he only existed khổng lồ remind us all how preposterously stupid they were all being. (Sad!) When characters vày bone-headed stuff in most horror films—reading from the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis in Evil Dead, for example—it's easily forgivable because audiences largely aren't supposed khổng lồ care about the motivations of idiot kids in horror movies. Not lớn mention, the stakes—and the consequences—are so ridiculous & over-the-top (remember *Dead'*s blood storm?), it doesn't really matter.
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And I think that's where Don't Breathe really lost me. Everything that happens pre-twist was a little too real. Not that it was believable, per se, but it all theoretically could happen. When you're accidentally summoning the dead or find yourself unwittingly in the path of Burn Victim Scissorhands, what happens to you as the protagonist of a horror film is easier for the audience lớn take because it couldn't happen to lớn them. Because the events here are painfully possible, the way they were presented needed lớn be either more well done, or ... Actually, I don't know that there's another option.
Which brings us to that twist. Damn. Where to lớn begin? So, because you had seen the movie before me & warned me the surprise was bad, I went in steeled for the worst. (Honestly, I was half expecting khổng lồ see the "Lust" chapter of Se7en.) While it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, it was still pretty awful. We've talked a bit around here about how lazy rape scenes are as plot devices và I think what Alvarez did here is guilty of playing into a lot of those tropes. (I'm not really buying "I'm not a rapist" here; forcibly impregnating someone is still a sexual assault.) As Laura Hudson pointed out in her piece talking about the use of rape on Game of Thrones, rape is often used lớn shock in movies và TV, but that rarely—if ever—works. Considering Alvarez told Slashfilm "I think this movie should be provocative và should push boundaries. All of the classics have at least one scene, one moment, that was completely fucked up," I think that's what he was going for & it was extremely disappointing that he did. (I was a big fan hâm mộ of his Evil Dead và had high hopes for Breathe.)
So, yeah, that twist left me very frustrated. What say you, Brian? How did you feel walking out of the theater?
Raftery: It’s funny you mention Se7en: When I walked out of that movie nearly 22 years(!) ago, I felt downright waxen, as though I’d just been unwillingly enveloped in some slimy, grimy layer of slop. But whatever ickiness Se7en instilled in me felt weirdly earned: The movie’s grim violence fits in with the dark worldview of the film và some of its characters, & each sin is an integral cog in the bigger story. Và it’s worth noting that, while the movie’s depiction of "Lust" is horrifying, it’s also mostly anecdotal—a story told by a shivering, unwilling participant, a few quickly glanced photos, và a relative amount of restraint. I may have felt super-shitty after seeing Se7en, but I didn’t feel like I’d been cheated, mostly because director David Fincher & screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker didn’t seem interested in shock for shock’s sake.
Don't Breathe left me with a similar crappy feeling, but for different reasons: Even without reading the interview you cite above, it was obvious khổng lồ me that the baster scene was included specifically khổng lồ shock. It was a clear case of rape ex machina—a turn of events that had no build-up, và that frankly didn't make a whole lot of sense. (I hate doing logic-forensics, especially in genre movies, but: How many victims did he intend to lớn impregnate, anyway? & even with all his moolah, how did a blind loner manage khổng lồ build a high-end insemination clinic in his basement?) The twist reminded me of the one in last summer's surprise-hit revenge-thriller The Gift, a movie I greatly enjoyed—how many times do you get khổng lồ see Joel Edgerton looking lượt thích a goateed Conan O'Brien?—until its conclusion, which features a late-in-the-film implied-rape scene that, in addition khổng lồ upending the movie's central conflict, felt lazy & lily-gilding.
But the end of Don't Breathe irked me in a way that The Gift's conclusion did not, & I think a lot of it had to bởi vì with that "I'm not a rapist" line. If Don't Breathe had been a smarter movie, one could argue—and this is a big stretch of an argument here—that the line is an attempt to showcase, và condemn, the way some men refuse to acknowledge that rape is rape, no matter the situation. But the baster scene in Don't Breathe was a tactless, tacked-on moment in a movie that was already starting khổng lồ feel pretty brainless, và I doubt that level of commentary was considered for even a second. And the attacker's declaration that what we're seeing isn't rape seems lượt thích a pre-emptive act of self-immunity, as if the filmmakers are saying: We realize this might scene might seem lượt thích it belongs in the Problem Attic(TM), but don't worry! The bad guy says it's not rape, so therefore, it's not—and now you, the audience member, don't have khổng lồ feel too grossed out about the cynical crassness of this last-minute twist!
So, yeah: Don't Breathe made me queasy & unsettled, & not for the reasons why movies lượt thích Se7en or Oldboy or *Battle Royale *or even Green Room left me reeling. Those movies were about cruelty, which is a topic I don't think filmmakers (nor audiences) should shy away from. And they certainly had a few cheap thrills thrown in. But each film's inherent shocks felt thought-out, not tossed-in, và they questioned the audience's darkest desires without pandering khổng lồ them.
Anyway, we're almost out of the basement. Still, before we sign off, Angela, I'm curious: Would you recommend Don't Breathe lớn others? I would—which seems like my own lame twist, considering everything I've said. But I bởi vì think Alvarez's staging and camerawork, along with Lang's performance, provide a few late-in-the-game jolts khổng lồ what's been a largely listless summer. And, more importantly, I think the film's third-act nadir—and the issues it helps raise—can spur the kind of conversations that filmmakers và audiences should be having in 2016. Or are you just like, "Too long; don't Breathe" at this point?
Watercutter: Actually, I would recommend it—and I feel just as weird saying that as you do. Maybe we're playing to lớn Alvarez's "provocative" hands here, but I do think Breathe can start a conversation that I want khổng lồ have with people—especially horror fans. I really wish that turkey baster scene wasn't there—there are probably a dozen other endings that would've sufficed—but I also wish Game of Thrones didn't use sexual assault as a plot device, too. The fact of the matter is, these things are out there, và ignoring them won't help. We need khổng lồ talk about these things—the plot won't change if we don't.
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