Don't Breathe 2 (2021) Dir: Rodo Sayagues
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Having recently rewatched and loved the first film, which was a big hit in the horror community, it seemed only right to move onto this 2021 sequel, directed by Rodo Sayagues. A host of mediocre ratings lowered my expectations, but still, I hoped for something at least watchable.
Within the first five minutes, it had already become more than evident that this was not going to be on the same level as the original. The camerawork started out bad and stayed that way - it was distracting, as much as it was irritating.
The dialogue was horrendously corny and frustrating. Often, it made little to no sense, and the characters either said or did contradictory or nonsensical things. To that end, it was impossible to be invested, because of just how detestable or irritating all of the characters were.
The film was missing all of the effective storytelling techniques of the first film, and in their place was a series of generic, substandard or problematic storylines, that just didn't work or make sense and were quite frankly embarrassing. Attempting to make the audience sympathise with a character who had assaulted someone in the previous film, for example, was a terrible idea.
Stephen Lang lost much of the aura that had made him such a threatening villain within the first few minutes of this one, replaced by a confusingly humanised and strangely performed shadow of the villain he had been. What a let-down.
Madelyn Grace tried and failed to provide a compelling young protagonist, although I will certainly make the concession that she was dragged down by what was a dire screenplay. She had the best scenes, as far as acting was concerned, though, in fairness, good acting was not exactly commonplace.
Brendan Sexton III had a rubbish character from which to pull some kind of performance from, but, try as he might, there was no such performance to be found. Unfortunately, he was terrible. He was so unlikeable, even when he wasn't really supposed to be.
There were some pretty middling performances from the supporting cast, most notably from Adam Young, Rocci Williams, Christian Zagia, Bobby Schofield and Fiona O'Shaughnessy. I will say, however, that, of those, O'Shaughnessy did have one scene which I very much liked.
Overall, I was very disappointed by what turned out to be a poorly conceived and poorly executed sequel. Next to nothing about this was a good idea, least of all the decision to try and make a gross antagonist someone to root for. It's safe to say I won't be revisiting this one anytime soon.
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