Don’t Breathe, Review: Wait Until Bark

“Just because he’s blind, it don’t mean he’s a saint,” says Money. Money is a nick-name, and he’s right about the blind guy. He’s no saint. He’s a Gulf War veteran who lost his eyes in combat. Back home, he’s recently lost his only child, a daughter, to in a car accident, and received $300,000 as settlement of his claim. So, does that deny him sainthood? Hardly! Instead, it makes him a ‘soft’ target for a gang of three young burglars, who find the prospect too tempting to resist. And the saint bit? Heavens, no! For those who plan to take advantage of his condition, heaven hath no fury like this blind man.

Rocky (Jane Levy), Alex (Dylan Minette), and Money (Daniel Zovatto) are three Detroit delinquents who make a living by breaking into homes, using access codes stolen by Alex from his father's security company, and selling the items they pinch. However, the stolen goods receiver doesn't give them a fair price, and not nearly enough to fund Rocky's dream of moving to California, with her little sister Diddy, to escape their neglectful mother and her alcoholic boyfriend. Money receives a tip that an Army veteran, Norman Nordstrom (Stephen Lang), living in an abandoned Detroit neighbourhood, has $300,000 in cash in his house, given as a settlement, after a wealthy young woman, Cindy Roberts, killed his daughter, in a car accident. The three stake-out the house, and discover that the man is, in fact, blind, using a dog and a cane to navigate the streets. Alex is unwilling at first, but, after some deliberation, he agrees, and they decide to break into the house.

That night, the three approach the house and drug the Blind Man's dog. Finding all the entrances locked, Rocky enters the house through a small window, and lets the other two in. The group searches the house for the money but is unable to find it; assuming it is behind a locked door, Money shoots the lock. Alex is shocked that Money brought a gun along, for that would give the occupant the right to shoot the burglars dead. The noise wakes up the Blind Man, who tactfully attacks Money, and kills him, with his own gun. Rocky hides in a closet, where she witnesses the Blind Man open a password protected safe, to check on his money. Unknown to him, the two have noted the numerical keys displayed. After he leaves, Alex finds Rocky in the closet, and the two open the safe, and take the money. Meanwhile, the Blind Man finds Alex's and Rocky's shoes downstairs, and deduces that Money was not the only intruder.

Two references cannot escape me as I sit to write this review. First is a simile: Nothing can be darker than a blind man searching for a black cat in a dark room, when the cat is not there. An actor friend had thought of improvising on this, by coining a metaphor, “This blind man could see very far in the darkness of Andheri (a Mumbai suburb, loosely meaning the dark place, where the film was being shot).” As the context would not be understood by audiences across the country, the suggestion was turned down by the director.

This is a dark film, in the truest sense of the word. It is noir; it is about a blind man; it is about a blind man who switches off the mains, to make the battle-ground a level playing field, with his adversaries as much in the dark as him; it is about the physical and psychological of a pointless war; it is about robbing a blind man, it is about grotesque revenge, it is about familial abuse, it is about a black, ferocious dog...

Second, a sarcastic joke that I heard ages ago went like this.

A passer-by, to a beggar, “Don’t you feel ashamed, begging, just because you are lame? Think how helpless you would have been if you were blind.”

“You’re right, Sir. These days, I get to keep my earnings. When I used to be blind, most of earnings would be stolen, and I would be totally helpless! I couldn’t even run after the sons-of-bitches.”

A sharp, sweeping pan-tilt and back to the action later, we are talking about a film that is not even remotely humorous. In fact, after watching Don’t Breathe, you are likely to lose some of the sympathy you have for the blind, as being ‘handicapped’ and ‘victims’. The vision-deprived man here is a raving psychopath, who shoots at sound, or smell, and has no qualms about killing or artificially inseminating (no less) anybody who has, or who he feels, has wronged him. Burglars breaking into a home, where the only person present is blind...rings a doorbell?

The bell will ring loud and clear if you are a WWII or Vietnam veteran, but even if you are a younger suspense–thriller buff, you won’t have to Wait Until Dark (1967) to remember the Audrey Hepburn-Alan Arkin gem. You’ll need to turn the plot on its head, though, for that’s the story of criminals, looking for a drug caché, that has been hidden in a couple’s house, and the drug-lord will not stop at anything to extract its location from the blind house-wife, who is unaware of its existence. What was this film’s original title? Man in the Dark. And Hepburn was a Woman in the Dark.

At 38, Uruguayan writer-director Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead) is halfway between his main characters’ ages: the trio is in their mid to late 20s, while the ‘victim’ appears to be in his late 50s/early 60s. Alvarez swings both ways with his screen loyalties. Co-written with Rodo Sayagues, the gripping narrative gives you three variations of a young, modern burglar. Money is ill-defined and shown only as a dumbish guy, who loves money and wants to take Rocky away, at all cost. Rocky is the child of a now absent/dead father, and a mother who has a live-in boy-friend. Alex is conscientious, without being moralistic, and finds it okay to do what he does, so long as it is not violent and over-the-top. It is the part of the blind man that is sinfully fascinating. Rippling muscles, near bulls-eye aim, a fortress for a home, all kinds of weapons and chemicals at hand, his own brand of judge and jury justice, and the superhuman ability to bounce back after every fall, almost unscathed. To recall that the audience actually rooted for him when the picture of his late daughter was shown a mantel-piece was shown upside-down takes a lot of believing.

Alvarez does not write scripts with actors in mind. Nevertheless, he must be delighted with his choice of the blind man. Swinging towards the actor, who was 62-63 when they shot the film, he wanted him to hate those ‘kids’ for doing what they were. This is what he told a website, “I’d go and tell him, “These ....... kids! They’re breaking into your house! They’re somewhere in your house! You don’t know where they are, but they have your money and that’s the last thing you have, and that money is your daughter, man! They’re taking the last thing that represents her! Then, all I had to do was scream action and let the leash go.”

Stephen Lang (Gods and Generals, Avatar, Conan the Barbarian) has come a long way. Never mind that he is 64 now; he still has a Lang way to go. Lang was wearing lenses to make his eyes look like they look in the movie (and boy, they do look something), and that would impair 70% of his vision. In low light conditions, used in most of the 88-minute footage, he couldn’t see anything.  

Now for the Alvarez and Sayagues check list. A dozen things are omitted, incredulous, co-incidental, unexplained, exaggerated or illogical—the flimsy back-stories of two of the burglars and the non-existence of the third guy’s story, the ineffectuality of the fumes, the reappearance of the drugged dog, that just barks but never bites, the ineffective hand-cuff, the heightened sense of smell, the kidnapping, how the psychopath acquired and built his fortress, why is the entire neighbourhood deserted, the gagged captive thrusting  a newspaper clipping that identifies her, the captive freed but running with her face-mask on, the timidity of the intruders till they are pushed to near death, the camera moving around purposelessly, from nobody’s point of view. And you still like it? Yes. Weighing the pros and cons...yes. No, not as much as some of my fellow reviewers from the US of A, who have probably seen more in the film than I did. Maybe they are being too generous, and comparing it to a host of pot-boilers that did the genre little justice. It keeps you riveted while it is unfolding, and the loopholes are visible only when the lights come on.

Jane Levy (Jewish-British, Evil Dead, About Alex, Bang Bang Baby) has expressive eyes, though not quite the domestic strife victim looks. Dylan Minnette (Let Me In, Prisoners, Goosebumps) pops his eye-balls out so much that you fear they may fall out. He has the cute, boy next-door looks, and deserved a couple of back-story scenes. Daniel Zovatto (Costa Rican; Beneath, Innocence, It Follows)’s is among the most poorly etched parts, the others being Jane’s mother and her boy-friend (a sit-on only). Jane Graves as Cindy (the captive), Emma Bercovici as Diddy (Rocky’s sister), Katia Bokor as Ginger (Rocky’s mother) and Olivia Gillies as Emma (the daughter) form the rest of the cast.

A bow-wow for the three dogs that stand-in/run-in/bark-in for each other: Astor, Athos and Nomad. Poor chaps, they are made to perform all the evil deeds that can be attributed to dogs, except, as cited above, bite. Their bark, surely in this instance, is worse than their bite. For the last word, how about a quote from Stephen Lang, “I remember seeing one lecture by a blind guy, and he kept his eyes closed. Basically, he said, that to him, there’s really no point in opening them. It was easier not to open them, and I thought that was interesting.”

Keep your eyes open for a sequel or prequel, equal or unequal.

Like the headline which, is an attempt to insert a smile in a gory story, wait until bark.

Rating: ***

Trailer: https://youtu.be/76yBTNDB6vU?t=20