With a global pandemic morphing before our eyes—forcing even us vaccinated folks to dig out our masks yet again to stave off the spread of a variant whose name I’m pretty sure one U.S. airline is deeply lamenting (as a Karen, I sympathize)—choosing to don a mask and head to the theaters to see a film titled Don’t Breathe 2 feels like the last thing you’d want to do, and at the same time, it’s somehow entirely fitting. Turns out, the film itself is kinda like that too.
After co-writing the delightfully campy Evil Dead (2013) and the creatively thrilling Don’t Breathe, Rodo Sayagues made the bold move here of choosing a sequel for his directorial debut. In Don’t Breathe 2, we catch up with Stephen Lang’s portrayal of our favorite most-interesting-man-turned-psychopath protagonist Norman Nordstrom. This time, he has a little girl named Phoenix in his care, and his paranoid doomsday prepper tendencies are off the charts, even for him. After the girl makes a fateful trip into town that draws the attention of some bad characters, Norm’s safe haven is invaded and his savvy security systems and Phoenix’s survival training sessions are put to the test. Eventually we learn more about why he’s so scared of being found, and as the film progresses, we find ourselves changing alliances more times than LeBron James.
Don’t Breathe 2 shares quite a bit with the original 
film, and it’s not only the fact that it’s also set in my beloved Detroit(-ish). Much like the original, the sequel also shifts genres and challenges expectations enough to give us whiplash, avoiding clichés at all costs. It’s also similarly brutally violent at times, with plenty of gore, flashy combat skills, and the creative use of household items as weapons (ok but real talk, shouldn’t a prepper have guns . . . like everywhere?). And yes again, we are impressed with Norm’s skills, as this 70-plus character puts the average gym rat to shame, and even wields his blindness as a secret weapon.
But unfortunately I can’t rave as much about Sayagues’ work here as I did his colleague’s in 2016. Suffering from a lot of the same challenges any sequel does, Don’t Breathe 2’s scares are just a bit more expected this time around, the plot twists just a bit too wildly unbelievable, and the plausibility of any of the fight scenes or kills a bit too tenuous. Plus there’s simply no bringing back that sense of mystery we had about Norm in the first film.
But despite these dips and disappointments, I still say this ridiculous film just might be 
worth seeing, perhaps in part because it does relay an important message loud and clear – challenge what you think you know. In a world where you’re on one side of a debate or another, right or wrong, up or down, when things feel so clear and obvious, Don’t Breathe 2 asks us to see things from the other side, to dig a little deeper, to read one more article, and ask one more question. After all, you might just find that the foundation you once thought was so sure is rather unsteady. And frankly, dear readers, I simply can’t shun any film that has each of us doing more of our own research and challenging our assumptions these days.
SpecialK Verdict: If you’re deciding which film is worth suffering through a few hours of mask breathing for this summer, this one may not be your jam, but when Don’t Breathe 2 makes it to streaming, this wild ride isn’t the worst way for a horror fan to spend an afternoon.
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