Don't Breathe (2016) Horror Thriller

Don't Breathe (2016) - In an attempt to support horror movies more actively I have been trying to commit to see more films in the theater. Tonight Don't Breathe and its bad idea gone worse plot was the target. My wife and I headed over but we never seem to agree on movies since she can not deal with scary at all, so she went off to see Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) while I went in to see this film. At the 7pm showing the audience was about 40 people a mix of young and older with some talkers that were not too annoying. Not a great crowd but at least I could gauge some reactions when the film was over. What I heard was very positive with quite a few people clapping and some of the younger people talking excitedly about the movie. If representative of other audiences I think this film will get some good word of mouth.
  The plot about three out of luck twenty somethings Money (Daniel Zovatto), Rocky (Jane Levy) and Alex (Dylan Minnette) who using information and keys gained from Alex's father's security business are robbing houses for small time gains. Set in Detroit with its bleak abandoned neighborhoods we get the picture that options are really slim for the three. Still Alex is cautious while Rocky and boyfriend Money would love a bigger score. That opportunity comes when Money hears about a blind man who is sitting on a boatload of settlement money. The Blind Man (Stephen Lang) has a sad story an Iraq veteran who was blinded by a grenade explosion who lost his daughter to a wealthy young woman who killed her in a car accident. The settlement money from that event is the target of the three burglars. He lives alone with his rottweiler on a mostly empty street and seems to the kids an easy target. The film does quite a few things that say something about wealth and poverty. Set in poverty we see the thieves targeting mostly nice houses, taking enough from each to survive. The owners of those houses are seen as having more than they need. The woman who killed the Blind Man's daughter got off because "rich girls don't go to jail" so for the poor there is no justice. Both the Robin Hood idea and the injustice of wealthy is to try to build sympathy for The Blind Man and the thieves. Rocky is seen with her really shitty Mother basically having to care for her little sister in her Mom's place. She wishes to get enough money to take her sister and escape to California. The blind man is the victim that will have to loose his money so she can do this so the film makes them both victims.
  After drugging the dog with some tainted meat the trio find there way into what is a really well locked down house. In the house they are not finding much but a door so locked they figure it has to be where the money is. While Alex is outside they are interrupted by the Blind Man who wakes and comes downstairs. Money and Rocky freeze and Money pulls a gun on the man with some unfortunate and awkward line about knowing what's behind the door. His mistake when the Blind Man ends up winning the struggle for the gun. Rocky standing silently watches as her boyfriend is killed. The blind man figuring out that there is at least one more person in the house proceeds to lock every possible exit and start listening. Here now begins the thrilling cat and mouse game as Alex and Rocky try to get out of the house alive and with the money they eventually locate. A twist in the story that should not be given away makes the audience realize that the Blind Man is not so innocent or helpless for that matter. Still Writer director Fede Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues pull punches with the character giving ample reasons why he has done what he has done. Maybe its because they made him a military veteran but boy they work hard at making him sympathetic. A injured soldier, grieving father and the last bit on the television report at the end of the movie all really are designed to make things okay with the Blind Man even though he is a killer (granted Money did break in and pull a gun) as well as another twist that is more than repulsive. It can not be overlooked or explained away with grief, the Blind Man is really mentally ill but his actions are awful and should not be explained away.
  The action and thrills with Rocky, Alex and the Blind Man with his again awake dog is really well done. The struggle to survive and escape with the cash and the blind man with a gun are enough to keep the audience on the edges of their seats throughout the taut 88 minute run time. A little slight of hand camera work later in the film is well played in making us think one thing when something different happened. Some really great sequences with quite a few well timed jump scares by the dog make the film really active considering the small set and limited number of characters. Everyone gets bruised and battered by the end fighting to survive The struggle plays out well but the strangely upbeat ending felt like another punch pulled. The acting is good with Lang toning down his regularly larger than life energy to pull emotions without being big. An intimidating actor who is big and strong looking he really is perfect for this role. Levy who is usually the best person in whatever she is in carries her role well and makes a great final girl. She was Mia in the Evil Dead (2013) remake and carried the under rated television show Suburgatory. Alverez does a great job keeping the pacing up and delivering tense, danger filled scenes. This film is very much worth seeing and you should all head out to the theater and give this film some money.
  As I have done so far this year; I am doing as an experiment my Twitter account @Soresport is dedicated to following and being followed by people in and behind the scenes. Then I am also hoping some of them follow me back. (Not really expecting that though) It really is an experiment and where I love the horror community it is a way to keep track of what is going on by the people involved in it.  I am now following over 188 people while the followers is only 31 so as you can see people in the biz do not follow just anyone back. :)

Julia's Eyes (2010) Thriller

Julia's Eyes (2010) - Los ojos de Julia, Original title, Spanish
I love when a movie has a great opening sequence and this film does.When the first ten minutes is compelling it immediately makes the viewer want more and that is what the beginning of this film does. I end up liking the film a bit more because of the engaging start. Julia's eyes has such a start. We open on a neighborhood of identical houses. There is music we follow as we close down onto one house in particular house. The woman does not like the music and looks around for whoever turned it on. Not looking with her eyes as it is obvious that she is blind. The power goes off. The lead actress (Belen Rueda)stands in the dark her eyes bluish clouds of blindness. She is yelling into the dark, to the viewer it appears that she is yelling into a dark corner. There is no one there but she believes there is. Her blindness gets the viewer to believe it too. She goes down into the cellar and makes her way we think to a fuse box but part way across the floor is a stool. She seems to know what the stool is for and she climbs up atop it. A noose hangs from the ceiling and she has thought about using it before. She does not want to though with that being in the dark watching her. She addresses the darkness, "You think you can fool me. No, you can't fool me! I can feel your presence and your movements. I can even smell you, and if you think, you son of a bitch, that I'm going to hang myself while you're there..." A leg shoots from the darkness sending the stool flying and the woman struggles as the noose tightens around her neck. A camera flashes from the corner of the room a couple times capturing her death on film. Then we see a syringe kit being folded by the gloved hand of the intruder.
  Here we have the set up worthy of continuing the film. The woman obviously not Julia (also Rueda) since the title of the film leads away from that is a mystery. After we learn who she is, Julia's twin sister Sara, we still have questions that need to be answered. Why was she so willing to hang herself? It seemed she set up that scenario but why was there someone else there? Was the blindness the reason for the noose or was the harassment by the unknown person the reason? What was that syringe kit for, did it have something to do with Sara? So many questions to get the viewer primed for the main story. Julia being a twin has a feeling something is wrong with her sister and she and her husband go to the house. We quickly learn that the eye problems experienced by Sara are genetic and Julia has started losing her sight also. In a fine POV we get to see through Julia's eyes. How there are clouds of darkness as she struggles to make out the room she is in. It is a disconcerting experience to help the viewer understand her plight. Here is this woman struggling not only with the loss of her sister in an apparent suicide but also the fear that she will soon be blind. She has a loving husband Isaac (Lluis Homar) who stands by her even when she doubts her sister took her own life. Still this is a mystery and we know for it to proceed she needs to be lead towards answers.
Writer/director Guillem Morales does a fine job leading us through the story. With fellow writer Oriol Paulo we get the "next" character introduction needed to bring Julia to the next question. At her sister's home there is the next door neighbor Blasco (Boris Ruiz), his daughter Lia (Andrea Hermosa) and old blind lady Soledad (Julia Gutierrez Caba) to get her to the community center for the blind that Sara attended. From there the women of the center who are all blind help her notice that she is being followed by a man, through scent they find him out, and also that Sara had a boyfriend, a
to surprise to Julia. This leads to the Hotel Romeo, where Sara stayed at with her man friend and the character Crespulo (Joan Dalmau) and a key Sara left behind. While there the behavior of her husband Isaac raises suspicions for the audience, (possibly the red herring?). but in all doing everything that needs to be done to make a good thriller.
  There are several nice creepy and suspenseful scenes. When at her sisters funeral, Julia is sitting by the grave and mourning when a consoling hand is placed on her shoulder. Thinking it is her husband she then realizes through her foggy vision that she can see him yards away, startled she turns and find no one there. Then again after the blind women in the locker room of the community center identify a follower Julia tries to chase him through the half lit corridors of the building. Cornering in a dead end she realizes this is probably not the best idea she had. When we see the flash from the camera from the first scene we know there is danger in her decision. This before we even get to the big turn and the really suspenseful scenes. Adding to the horror for the character is that her husband first goes missing and then is found hanging in Sara's cellar with a suicide note detailing his affair with Sara. A devastating blow to Julia.
  Julia's condition deteriorates and there is only hope of an operations, It is unclear what the operation entails since part of the problem with the condition is nerve damage so what does the donor donate? retina? entire eyes? I am pretty sure eye transplants have not been successfully performed. So she is now in need of assistance and it takes the form of Ivan (Dani Codina) who is sent from the agency to teach her how to get around now that her sight is gone.
  There are a couple problems with this movie and really they start about this time. Ivan's face is never seen by us, the audience giving away that he is the killer. But then is he? where you never see him until the killer Angel (Pablo Derqui) exposes himself you can never be sure if he is the mysterious person in the shadows. As we learn the pieces of information we have been wanting to know we also see that Julia is in grave danger. Loving and kind to her Ivan is almost shown to be too good to be the bad guy but the filming choice lets us know it is not so. I suppose that they wanted us to be filled with a sense of dread but it was not the response I had. Since I knew she was in the care of the killer I just wanted to get to the climax, nothing was gained through the scenes of their relationship building for me. Secondly I really disliked the fact that she went to live in her sister's house. I understand how it was necessary for the logistics of the story but it felt way too forced. These were script decisions that make sense but I did not buy into enough. I think I would have liked it if we kept the Ivan character in full view and only slipped details of who he was in a bit at a time. It did not gain anything by outing him as early as the film did.
  Still this was an excellent film. Thrilling with a nice climax and one hell of a turn at the end and then a final fight for life that was satisfying and complete. So I liked this film a lot and maybe it will get me to include more thrillers into this blog. The horror aspects of the film were very complimentary so at least these films that straddle the line have a place here.
Rating (7.9) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others.