To celebrate the release of this summer hottest horror movie, Don’t Breathe, we sat down with some of the key talent to see how they created one tensest films of the last decade.
For those unaware Don’t Breathe tells the story of Rocky (Jane Levy) and her friends Alex (Dylan Minnette) and Money (Daniel Zovatto), who in a desperate bid to escape their lives in Detroit beak into an unsuspecting elderly blind man’s house.
Unfortunately for the would-be thieves the Blind Man (Stephen Lang) is more prepared for their break in than they could have ever expected and things quickly turn nasty for the thieves.
Speaking to director Fede Alvarez – who’s impressed in the past with his short film Panic Attack! and had audiences around the world trembling with his Evil Dead reboot – it became clear that this was a labour of love.
Alvarez explained to me the passion that had gone into crafting his claustrophobic masterpiece – Alvarez also wrote the screenplay- mentioning it’s an idea he’s had for awhile.
Unfortunately Alvarez needed to demonstrate his movie making chops with the Evil Dead reboot first before the studio would commit, but having the original Evil Dead director Sam Raimi on board as a producer certainly helped his case.
The director also spoke with passion about the mythology of the film and its villain ‘the blind man’, saying there was something almost mythical and universal about a neighbourhood having a scary old man living on it.
It was this universal fear that attracted Stephen Lang to the villain, who enjoyed the idea of playing an antagonist that everyone could relate to. Lang was also drawn to the characters physicality and loved that he was so vulnerable while also being powerful at the same time.
When I mentioned Lang’s Blind Man potentially coming back for a sequel in the style of Freddy or Jason he chuckled and said that’d be up to Alvarez not him.
It’d be difficult to pull off a sequel without Lang who didn’t just frighten audiences he also intimidated Levy, Minnette and Zovatto who admitted to being quite scared of the veteran star at first.
Levy joked it was difficult to get used to Lang being so nice off set compared to his furious and intimidating on screen character.
Don’t Breathe is currently screening nation wide.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.