Let this be a lesson to larcenous lads and lassies – breaking and entering could end in being broken and exiting without breathing.
That’s the lesson to be learned from DON’T BREATHE a genuinely tense and creepy entertainment from director Fede Alavarez.

Set in Detroit, the great manufacturing ghost town of the United States, DON’T BREATHE starts with a remarkable aerial shot of a suburban street on which the macadam is cracked and unkempt, a splendid visual metaphor for the distressed Motor City.

In this depressed and deteriorating city, three youths, two males and a female have been burglarising homes, the motive, at least for the girl, Rocky, to accumulate enough funds to secure an escape for her and her younger sister from the treadmill trailer trash environs of their slattern, alcoholic mother.

Acting on advice from their fence, the trio conspire to rob a blind army veteran assumed to be hiding a considerable nest egg in his ramshackle hermitage, the last occupied residence in the street.

This seemingly no brainer robbery kicks off a ninety minute nightmare, gross and grotesque homicidal hide and seek.

There’s gore galore but DON’T BREATHE is superior to base slasher fare with a palpable sense of suspense and horror, all very human, with no nonsense supernatural interference.

The terror of being tethered and trapped, the claustrophobia of fear, the distress of dismemberment, the dread of violent violation and imminent and painful death are all chillingly distilled in the writing, direction, performance, editing and scoring of this terrific take on the old haunted house template.

Jane Levy as Rocky gives a knock-out portrayal of single minded survival, possessing a quality conjuring comparisons to Reece Witherspoon and Kirsten Stewart.

Stephen Lang’s besieged blind warrior is a masterclass in physical expression bringing a subtle nuance in his battle with the not so subtle nuisances.

Shocking, enthralling, horrifying, and relentless, DON’T BREATHE moves at breathless pace presenting narrative twists and nerve tingling delights in incremental creep. Just don’t forget to breathe.