Mostly Great Technically, But My Issues...

I'll start off with the pros... wow, what a technically impressive horror film. The cinematography, sound and music, acting, concept, overall technical direction - very great. Props to the director and filmmakers behind this - I remember thinking how 20 minutes into this movie, no real "action" has happened yet, but I was tense and on the edge of my seat. Great build up of suspense, and I love the pacing of the film. It starts fast, keeps on going throughout, and there are barely any slow moments in the film.

But, we come to the issues. The writing. While the concept is interesting, I think to me the writing fails in that it continues the cliche and tropes of idiot characters - by that, I mean how characters being stupid is the set-up to advance the plot. It's lazy.

As I was watching, I made a list of points that irked me. SPOILER WARNING:

1. Leaving the dog in the open and not securing it
2. The whole idea of breaking into the house, not listening to Alex
3. Leaving their shoes inside the house (you know that's a lazy set-up for drama later)
4. Money not firing the gun at the man when he had the chance. Fire at his leg, or torso, not his head - just injure him. Sure, you can say it's a reflection of his character - all talk, no action. But still, it's just so convenient.
5. Rocky not even helping when the two of them were struggling with the gun. Literally she could've run over and just stabbed him in the vulnerable side with anything. Movie's over. Don't say anything about them trying to be quiet - at that point in the film, they didn't know he has Daredevil superhearing powers and didn't fear him yet. We as an audience know, because we've seen trailers and understand the context, but they as characters do not.
6. Alex moving backwards to step off rug for no reason when Money's body was being dragged. Another lazy way to stir up some drama.
7. Shoes being found by the Man. The fact that he discovered them by smelling them. Seriously.
8. Not bringing flashlights to a robbery at night with a blind man.
9. Alex's "phone dying". How convenient. In this day and age with young people so connected to tech, and not prepping their phones to be charged before a robbery?
10. Man thinking to check the safe again when he just checked it 5 min ago. Him discovering the shoes should have no impact on his thought process. The people were already there, regardless of whether he discovered the shoes or not. Again - we as an audience may think to check the safe again because we have the grand context of seeing everything - but logically, there's no reason the Man would check the safe again that soon.
11. Taking so long to navigate out of the basement. A house in that design is small. The basement physically would not be that large and they should've been out of there in literally 10 seconds.
12. Stupid girl jump scare in basement that "caused the plot to move forward". That entire idea is so flawed. So she has a trigger on her that if the girl runs too far, it rings a bell. And the lights turn on, so the girl's first thought is to run forward with arms up to cause a jump scare. Actually, she started running BEFORE the light switch turned on if you think about it, since the timing was in sync with the lights coming on. So she just randomly decided to thrust her body against a harness painfully at the theoretical "CAMERA" toward the audience. So what if during the day, she just walks around. Is the bell just constantly ringing?
13. Rocky basically causing all the problems of the film. They should have just left the basement instantly. If the girl was left alive so long, she wouldn't die if they walked out for 5 min, then called the cops.
14. The predictable trap door trap. Girl they just rescued getting killed, again because of Rocky.
15. Not texting 9-1-1. (Redacted - apparently society is a disappointment in that texting 9-1-1 still isn't implemented as a full system and is just a Work-In-Progress)
16. The fact that the dog is inside, or that they're afraid of the dog at all. Seriously. Hit the dog in its face.
17. Not putting more objects to barricade the door Ever thought about using the bed too? He's not the Hulk.
18. The fact that Alex fell out a window. After they were all "barred". Incredible. Don't even argue that that one window happened to not be barred.
19. The man finding and turning off the alarm, right after catching Alex. He must have omniscient powers.
20. Rocky crawling away in typical horror fashion (watch Film Riot's 'Chainsaw' on this cliche) instead of actually getting up
21. Again, not bashing the dog in the head
22. Not continuing to bash the man. This is probably one of the worst offenders, and is such a typical and cliche way to re-introduce the villain. Knock the guy out... it's not that difficult.
23. Alex not fully unlocking the door first before going to save Rocky. It showed him using the keys on the door before he went down, yet he conveniently just didn't do the last lock.
24. The money bag being "dropped" outside the car. Of course, gotta' pad the run time more.
25. Rocky not getting out of the car after the dog is trapped immediately
26. Man finding his dog and the girl, the "jump scare" of him.
27. The police not immediately finding the man's set-up in the basement, and the bodies, and coming up with more suspicions.

Anyway, these are thoughts that I had upon first viewing. I'm sure they can be picked apart or added onto. Regardless, this to me is the last ingredient they are missing. If you look at "bad" horror movies and what makes them bad - unoriginal plots, bad characters being stupid as the way to propel the plot, cheap jump scares, unoriginal and uninteresting technical aspects (visuals, sound, etc.) and anything else - Don't Breath SUCCEEDS in almost all of those aspects. They nail the visuals, the acting, the concept, but there's ONE piece they didn't get - writing something that didn't rely on character stupidity over and over to push the plot.

But still - it's a good direction we're heading in. Still a tense film with excellent technical direction.