If you can believe it, it’s been 10 years since one of the best cult classics in modern horror hit theaters. At the time, few people outside of diehard fans of the genre knew the filmmaker, while the only star in the cast was known for a blockbuster franchise that was far different than any horror film, and few could’ve imagined how well he’d make the jump between genres. The movie earned $157 million at the box office against an indie-sized budget of just under $10 million, giving Screen Gems and Sony Pictures all the reason to greenlight a sequel (although that didn’t work out for the best).
That film was Don’t Breathe, the home invasion horror-thriller directed by Fede Álvarez, from a script he co-wrote with his frequent collaborator, Rodo Sayagues. And, in the decade since its release, Álvarez, Sayagues, and the cast of the film have all gone on to bigger things – although it’s hard to get better than a film that actually made horror audiences pipe down and be quiet in the theater (for once).
The plotline of Don’t Breathe follows a thief named Rocky (Jane Levy) who is trying to escape Detroit and move her little sister to California for a better life. Rocky gets roped into pulling a burglary in an abandoned section of the city, where a lonely veteran named Norman Nordstrom (Avatar star Stephen Lang) is living off a substantial settlement he received after a wealthy woman killed his daughter in a car accident. Rocky, her delinquent boyfriend “Money” (Daniel Zovatto), and best friend Alex (Dylan Minnette) all decide to pull the job after learning that Norman is blind. They sneak into his house, but things immediately go wrong. Norman is something far darker and worse than he appears to be, and the three would-be thieves quickly become the prey.
With Don’t Breathe, Fede Álvarez created one of the most unique and creative high-concept horror-thrillers ever. The character of Norman Nordstrom wasn’t just your average slasher-killer; he was essentially a shark in human form, swimming around his house, killing anything he came across. The premise of the story and the dynamic it creates (the protagonists having to sneak around Norman’s house without making a sound) affected the audience and viewing experience: the real “scare” in the movie is the audience’s collective bated breath, as they, too, tried not to make a sound whenever Norman was onscreen.
You had to be there (and I was) to truly appreciate it; as I said in my official Don’t Breathe review, the film is “a successful horror-genre experiment that’s worth seeing, if only for the novelty of the experience. It’s the type of film destined for cult-hit status, and more evidence that Fede Álvarez is a modern horror movie auteur, as he delivers one of the better end-of-summer horror movies to come along in a while.”
The film managed to work maximum tension out of its high-concept premise, without it wearing too thin. Don’t Breathe‘s cult status was cemented by its third-act twist, which revealed the true demented horror of what Norman was doing in his house (No Spoilers!). Fans have never stopped talking about that sick reveal, or what kind of “horror” poor Rocky has to go through. Fede Álvarez was GOATED after that, leading to an entire new phase of his career. Unfortunately, he didn’t return for Don’t Breathe 2, which ended up crashing and burning, ending any franchise hopes.
Fede Álvarez and Jane Levy reunited for Don’t Breathe after they both achieved major breakout success with the Evil Dead (2013), which Levy also starred in. But that had been a remake of Sam Raimi’s iconic horror-comedy series; Don’t Breathe was entirely Álvarez’s original creation, and the first test of whether or not he had the talent of a true horror auteur. After Don’t Breathe, Álvarez stumbled while trying to make the jump to a big franchise thriller (The Girl in the Spider’s Web); still, his horror achievements were so indelible that Disney and 20th Century Studios handed him the reins of one of the biggest sci-fi/horror franchises around, Alien. Álvarez released Alien: Romulus in 2024, and it was an even bigger hit than Don’t Breathe, successfully rebooting the franchise and earning $350 million at the box office. Now, Álvarez is a household name in horror, with fans eagerly awaiting his next project.
For Levy, the role of Rocky was a vastly different one than the over-the-top, full-throttle performance she gave in Evil Dead, requiring much more nuance and expressive acting, as dialogue, yelling, and screaming were all largely off the table. After the film’s release, she tried other film roles, but really found her breakthrough in television. She starred in the Stephen King universe mystery/drama Castle Rock (another cult hit), before achieving mainstream network success in the series Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. She’ll next appear in another film that has cult status written all over it: the survivalist horror-thriller Whalefall, which will be in theaters this fall.
Stephen Lang was the real breakout star, however. After Lang became a star playing a militant colonizer in James Cameron’s Avatar, many moviegoers had him typecast in that kind of role. Álvarez gave the aging actor a shot, and he ended up creating one of the better horror movie killers of the decade. Norman was terrifying even though he was “handicapped,” adding a weirdly progressive spin to the usual stereotypes. It was the power of Lang’s performance and physicality that made the studio center the sequel around him. Unfortunately, Norman as a father-figure and antihero didn’t quite play right, after the twisted portrait Álvarez had painted. But, as a standalone, the first Don’t Breathe still stands a decade later as one of the greats.
You can currently stream Don’t Breathe on Netflix.
