Don't Breathe 2- more than just a cash grab sequel

Going into “Don’t Breathe 2” Directed and co-written by Rodo Sayaguez Mendez I was expecting it to be a mindless action/thriller with not much story or stakes at hand, but I am happy to say I was wrong.

The movie follows a blind veteran who has moved to a country house with his daughter to hide and keep her protected since we learned in the first film he had already lost a daughter before. Eventually a group of 3 goons break in to kidnap his daughter and he must do anything to protect her.

With a short runtime of 1 hour and 38 minutes the movie never seems to be moving to fast or too slow with it’s pacing and balancing the action and also progressing the story along in a way that you don’t become lost and/or lose interest in the characters

I've seen and read a lot of headlines of people saying that the makers of the movie want you to root for a rapist. While they are not wrong, actor Stephen Lang who portrays Norman our blind protagonist and writers do a good job at showing they know this and are giving him a redemption arc through the movie.

My favorite part of the movie has to be the way the cinematographer Pedro Luque shoots the movie and also how the sound design team led by Mandell Winter use the fact that since our main character cannot see, they can use sounds to be able to show us that his other senses are able to help him in sticky situations.

Also the young actress Madelyn Grace who plays Phoenix steals almost every scene that she is in. Especially in a scene near the beginning where we follow her sneaking through the house, it causes you to want to hold your own breathe in your seat every time you hear a slight creak.

It is hard for sequels to live up to the hype of a first movie that was a success, and this one doesn’t quite give you the same emotion and scares as the first movie but what it does give us is a good action/rescue film that would give Taken a run for its money. Rating: 7.5/10