Fede Álvarez’s Don’t Breathe was one of the biggest sleeper hits of 2016, wringing every drop of tension from the high concept premise that followed a gang of youthful thieves who get more than they bargained for when they break into the home of Stephen Lang’s elderly gentleman, who doesn’t seem to be slowed down by the fact he’s blind.
Any hybrid of horror and thriller that earns almost $160 million at the box office on a budget under $10 million is guaranteed to get a sequel, with Don’t Breathe 2 finally arriving earlier this year. By the standards of the pandemic it was another success, hauling in close to $50 million, but reviews were less than stellar.
Whereas the opener scored an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the second chapter dropped significantly to 45%. One of the biggest issues people had with Don’t Breathe 2 is that it turned Lang’s Norman Nordstrom into a grizzled antihero, conveniently forgetting that this was the same guy who’d kept a woman chained up in his basement so he could impregnate her against her will.
That is most definitely not the material of which heroes are made, but that hasn’t stopped the movie from gaining a newfound appreciation on streaming. As per FlixPatrol, Don’t Breathe 2 has been climbing up the Netflix most-watched list all week, proving that gorehounds don’t mind spending the festive season indulging their bloodier proclivities.