DON'T BREATHE

(2016) Alex (Dylan Minnette) has a father who owns a home security company - allowing Alex and his burglar-buddies, Rocky (Jane Levy) and and her boyfriend Money (David Zovatto) to lead a clandestine life of robbing the more affluent homes of Detroit, the young adults trying to finance their way to Los Angeles and a new life. Per Alex, the trio never takes more than $10,000 worth of valuables, making their crimes just short of felonies that'd require a rougher prison sentence ... but when Money gets word of an old war veteran (the always-brilliant Stephen Lang) living on his own in an isolated, rundown part of town - whose recently come into money after the accidental death of his daughter - he and Rocky talk Alex into helping them score what could be enough money, in one take, to leave Detroit for good. When they case out the joint and learn the guy is blind as well, Alex finally agrees to the felonious caper, assuming an easy mark - but even before they're in the house, things are far from easy ... and once in, it becomes a lot less clear, very quickly, who is the hunter and who is the hunted. Don't Breathe isn't so much a title as a warning; one of the best thrillers of recent years, this is one film where, even if you sort of guess the "big twist" about halfway through (as I did), you'll still be - literally - holding your breath (or covering your mouth) for most of the film, not from cheap jump scares but from genuine, super-suspenseful tension that, like a piano wire being tuned, pulls and pulls and pulls so taut, you're sure something will snap; a level of suspense that, literally, holds up right to the end of the film and beyond, never fully letting the viewer go. Terrific film. (rated R) 9/10 stars