So, before I get into the nitty gritty of this film, I did want to remind all my viewers of the main, kind of, twist of the first, so if you haven't seen that film yet, you probably shouldn't be reading a review of the second, but also, spoiler warning for that first movie. Anyway, so the first movie was interesting because we had a group of kids break and enter into not only this blind man's house, this blind man that is coincidentally seriously violent, but it turns out that old man has a secret of his own hidden in the basement, and that was...he was trying to get a woman pregnant without her consent so that she'd give birth to a daughter for him - since he lost his own years prior. That's an important detail to cover, given the fact that....in this movie, we have what appears to be a daughter. Did he get back into his old antics? Did he actually get away with making some woman give birth for him? I won't tell you the answer for that - you'll have to see it for yourself, but one thing is for certain, he doesn't seem to be so...evil in this second film. I would actually say, in a way, this is a bit of a redemption film for a once, incredibly scary dude. Now, don't get me wrong, he's still a pretty scary character that knows multiple ways to tear somebody apart in the bloodiest of fashions, and it's wickedly incredible just to see Stephen Lang do his thing again. He's easily the best part of not only this film, but of the entire franchise as a whole, and to see him as more of a, maybe anti hero this time around was definitely a lot of fun, and the little girl in this film is easily the heart of the entire movie, and I liked that about the film, as sometimes, you didn't really know who to root for.

Don't Breathe 2 does a great job juggling the emotions of the viewers as it gives every character in the film a realistically complex character profile, where nobody in the film is truly good, nor are they truly evil. This was something that was also done in the first movie, because look - you have a group of kids breaking into somebody's home. They are in the wrong. They are technically criminals of what could be an innocent old blind man, but then it turns out he's really good at killing people, and so he starts wailing on them, and he's terrifying. He's a typical villain based on how dark he is, but the method to his madness was always very clever and logical. Same thing here. These druggies breaking into his home also are criminals, in more ways than one, but the more you learn about THEM, the more you begin to question who to trust...them...or the old man, and it constantly does this juggling trick that I think is much more effective in this film than it was in the first - because of the little girl. As the heart of the film, you, as the audience at home, connect with her the most, and you...like her, don't know who to trust. So, in a way, your own mind is transported back into the innocence of a child.

As far as the thriller aspect goes, I think Don't Breathe 2 is just as strong as the first movie, if not stronger. My end score is mostly identical to the first overall, but if I had to admit, I was probably pulled more into this one than I was last time. I thought the kills were spectacular, and the film's juggling trick kept most of the thrills alive. However, just like the first, I felt as if a movie about a blind man that you're trying to be stealthy around, needed less dialogue. Everyone talks in this movie. The bad guys, the little girl, the old man...heck, even the dogs in the film bark their heads off. It's kind of nonstop noise sometimes, and I think in a way, it lessens the effectiveness about a sensory-affected thriller like this. As I mentioned in my original review of the first, thrillers with a blind character are much more creepy when it's a slow-burning thing. Where half the film, all this crazy stuff is happening, but its happening really quietly, behind the back of the blind character who is oblivious to it all...until he isn't. and THEN all hell can break loose. It's more of a personal gripe with it than an actual complaint, as I think what they did with the film was fine for what it was.

It was also shot pretty well. A few long one-shots here and there throughout the movie, which always do a pretty good job adding to that creeping sensation you're supposed to have, and Lang himself also does a pretty good job with his performance. Overall, there's not a lot about this movie that I think was technically bad. I think a lot of it was actually pretty good. The twists in it were surprisingly, for me, pretty unguessable. Might not be the same for everyone, but I guess maybe I lucked out by most finding this unpredictable. Everything else in the film, if I didn't give it full points on my grading system, was just because it was business as usual. Nothing great or horrible.

That means when we look at my final score, my unbiased, technical score for Don't Breathe 2 is fairly decent, as I liked the way it was shot, edited together, and some of the visuals when it came to those scene done in the dark. I liked the performances from our leads here, and the overall unpredictability of the plot that somewhat serves as a bit of a redemption story. This score is 84%.
My biased score, or just how I felt about it overall, was right around there, as I definitely felt the tension in this film. I would even argue that it also works as a standalone film that doesn't really require previous knowledge in the first movie in order to understand or appreciate this one. This one, on its own, works really well. This score is 82%. Meaning, when we combine the two scores together, we come to the final rating of 83%, 83 out of 100 possible stars, or a B+ letter grade.
...PEACE OUT