Welcome back, my friends in horror! It feels like our beloved genre is currently in a very good place. The great Kevin Bacon showed some keen interest in playing Freddy Krueger which inspired our last Necessary Evil. It was very cool reading everyone's comments on that one. And now, we have a brand new horror movie out in theaters that is kicking ass both critically and financially! Have you seen the current #1 movie at the box office, Don't Breathe, yet? If not, I highly recommend you do, ESPECIALLY before reading this article any further because there will be loads of SPOILERS! With the movie doing so well, you can almost guarantee that the studios are going to be eyeing a sequel. That just seems to always happen when a small budgeted horror movie becomes huge. I know Don't Breathe may not need a sequel, but if similar scenarios from the past hold true, let's at least try and make sure that they do one correctly! Here's our take!
IDEA: A worthy sequel to Fede Alvarez's Don't Breathe!
OUTLINE: Okay, I'm going to assume that if you're reading this, you already saw Don't Breathe. Now… the sequel picks up over a year later. Rocky has settled in to life in California with her little sister, Diddy. She has changed their names to help conceal their identities, while living off the money she stole from the Blind Man. Diddy has some trouble adjusting because she is so young and unsure of all that is happening around her. Rocky works at an electronic store and has formed a bond there with her manager, a gay man named Adrian (get it?), who is the only person she feels comfortable enough to confide in. One day, Diddy makes the mistake of calling her junkie mother because she misses her. She doesn't tell Rocky.
A few weeks later, Rocky goes to pick Diddy up from school but can't find her anywhere. She receives a call. The voice on the other end of the line instantly chills her to the bone. It is the Blind Man and he does indeed have Diddy. He wants revenge for what Rocky took from him (not just money, but the chance to have another child of his own). If Rocky wants to ever see her sister alive again, she has to come alone to the address he gives her.
The address is that of an old, abandoned medical building. Instructions are left for Rocky telling her where to enter. She walks down a long corridor and suddenly, the Blind Man steps out from around a corner at the end. He is wearing sunglasses and holding Diddy at knife point. He orders Rocky to come towards them. She does as he says, but after closing the gap between them to about ten feet, she quietly takes out a gun and aims it. The Blind Man hurls Diddy at her. Rocky drops the gun while trying to catch her when someone else steps up from behind and bashes her on the head, knocking her out.
Rocky wakes up tied to a hospital bed with her legs in stirrups. A man with what appears to be a prosthetic leg enters and turns on a boiler plate. Rocky asks who he is and why he is doing this. The man doesn't answer. The Blind Man enters and explains that the Silent Man lost his ability to speak as well as his leg because of the same grenade accident in the Gulf War that took his sight. The Silent Man was also the one who abducted the woman that accidentally killed the Blind Man's daughter. The Blind Man also reveals that he purchased the building in which they currently reside because there was much more of the settlement that he received when he lost his daughter. That large portion was kept in a bank. Rocky only got away with a small chunk of it. The Blind Man also tracked down and bribed Rocky's junkie mother to let him know if she ever found out where she was. Remember, the Blind Man is thought of as the victim and Rocky as the criminal at the end of the first movie. But all the Blind Man truly cared about was creating another child of his own… which is what he is now, for the second time, attempting to do with Rocky!
The Silent Man takes a small, frozen cup and a turkey baster out of a cooler. He puts the frozen cup in some water on the boiler plate. Rocky begins to freak out. Footsteps are heard out in the hall. The Silent Man exits to check if Diddy escaped. The Blind Man, still wearing his sunglasses moves up close to Rocky and tells her how he dreamed of getting back to this moment while in the hospital recovering from what she did to him in his house. Without warning, he is cracked in the back of the head by a baseball bat. He drops to the ground revealing Adrian. He tracked Rocky on her phone and heard screaming. He unties her as the Blind Man begins to regain consciousness. The two rush out of the room, but can't leave the building because Diddy is still in there. This sets up the main suspense set piece of the film as Rocky and Adrian try to locate Diddy while being stalked by the Blind Man and the Silent Man.
After a long stretch of cat-and-mouse, Rocky and Adrian take out the Silent Man. They eventually find Diddy and escape the building into daylight. Once again, Rocky knows that The Blind Man will be out of his element if he attempts to follow them and this time there is no dog. Feeling safe, they reach Adrian's car. However, the Blind Man miraculously springs upon them and shoots Adrian in the head. He forces Rocky into the passenger's seat and Diddy into the back and locks the doors. Keeping his gun aimed at them both, he starts the car. "What are you doing?!" Rocky cries out. "We're going for a little ride," he says. "I've got another new home picked out for us." the Blind Man then lowers his sunglasses. One of his eyes is still all white and messed up, but the other now has a dark pupil. The Blind Man reveals that while in the hospital, he received a cornea transplant in one eye and the donor was Alex from the first film! "Your dead boyfriend's eye sees you!" The Blind Man grins as he drives off.
WHY IT COULD WORK: Don't Breathe is already a certified hit and is really connecting with audiences. The Blind Man is quickly becoming an iconic horror villain and I have a feeling that fans want more of him! In order for the sequel to succeed, you've got to get the brilliant Fede Alvarez back in the director's chair. This man really knows how to craft proper suspense. Since people are now aware of what the Blind Man is truly after, we need Alvarez's skilled hand to make sure the sequel still elicits screams.
CHARACTERS: Obviously, you have to bring back Jane Levy and Stephen Lang, who were both fantastic in the first one! Also bring back young Emma Bercovici as Diddy. For Adrian, I could see someone like Lou Taylor Pucci (from the Evil Dead remake) in the role. And lastly for the Silent Man, we need someone who is close in age to Stephen Lang and just as bad ass. How incredible would it be if we got Mr. Bruce Campbell?!
CONCLUSION: I don't want there to be a sequel to Don't Breathe unless it is handled in the same expertly suspenseful manner as the original. I'm sure some may rush to say that the studios are merely cashing in on the most recently hot commodity. I say no way! Either do it right (by hiring back Fede Alvarez) or don't do it at all! As long as the story is still scary and believable, then I believe that many are going to want more!
Okay! I have a feeling that you're just waiting to voice your opinion on this one! Now is the time to let it rip! Do you think a sequel to Don't Breathe is a breath of fresh air or a bunch of hot air? Is there anything else you think the sequel should contain? Go forth and blast them bullets below! And if you have any ideas that you think should be made into horror reality, let me know at mikecatalano@joblo.com.