Don't Breathe has turned out to be one of the most successful and praised mainstream thriller/horror films of the year, directed by Fede Alvarez and the same team who gave us the Evil Dead remake in 2013.

The Wet Bandits come to break into the McCallister house around Christmas time, but they don't expect that little Kevin..wait, wrong movie. Three lowlife robbers in Detroit are planning to rob a blind man, because they're all worthless scumbags. They think he's defenseless, but the break-in may not be as easy as they assume.

I don't want to spoil too much, but this is definitely a movie that plays "moral ping pong". "Some bad guys break into an innocent man's home. But they do it for a seemingly good reason. But he may not be so good either. But maybe they aren't so good? Or are they? Is he? But maybe. But. But. But." Over and over again, the movie swings back and forth until I frankly no longer cared. In short, there's no reason to root for anybody in this movie, and when you don't have anyone to root for, why should you care, and why should you feel any sense of tension or suspense?

Speaking of suspense, there's basically just a series of loud and violent sequences in this movie. I thought this was praised for tension and atmosphere, but it's not scarier than a random Saw movie. And yet again, I really must stress that when you don't care about the characters (fuck these three idiots, seriously), why should you be invested or scared, and how could you possibly relate to them?

The photography is pretty decent, the score too, but the movie keeps on doing that incessant "tinnitus" thing (where a loud sound keeps ringing in your ears on purpose). When they've done it three to five times it's like we fucking get it already. It's loud and disorienting. There were also just a whole host of strange incongruities and odd scenes, not to mention dumb and odd choices by the characters.

Don't Breathe? Don't care. Hollow, unredeemable characters set up as protagonists, sloppy writing and a bumbling sequence of loud events does not make for a great thriller. I could also knock points off for everything that was ripped right out of Panic Room, but I won't go there. By no means is this movie awful, but by no means is it engaging either, neither in the writing or the execution. If anything it may be a movie that sparks a lot of discussion after you've seen it though, so I guess that's sort of a good thing?