A blind action hero is certainly a unique concept for a movie, but the first trailer for upcoming sequel Don’t Breathe 2 generated some backlash from fans of the original for positioning Stephen Lang’s Norman Nordstrom as the heroic protagonist second time around, as opposed to the terrifying boogeyman he was in the first film.
The footage boasted plenty of atmosphere, and Lang’s performance looks to be suitably unnerving or creepy, so it’s hard to understand why people are so up in arms. It’s evident from the promo he’s still happy to do a spot of murdering when the occasion calls for it, and there appears to be a big twist hinting that he may have ended up caring for Madelyn Grace’s precocious Phoenix under suspicious circumstances.
In a new interview co-writer, producer and director of the first movie Fede Alvarez and his protege Rodo Sayagues, who makes his directorial debut on Don’t Breathe 2, addressed the criticism, with Alvarez claiming that they’ve deliberately set out to subvert expectations.
Fede Álvarez began his response to the “Don’t Breathe 2” backlash by declaring that, “we like to f*** with people.” He then addressed the issue with more nuance, explaining that he views the film following “The Blind Man” in the same manner as a series like “Game of Thrones” that asks for empathy for similarly monstrous characters. He went on to explain that The Blind Man is “more of an anti-villain. He may think he’s not, or do some things that’ll make him escape it temporarily, but he is. He’s a shadow character, not so much the protagonist. There’s so much more to the story.”
Fede Álvarez began his response to the “Don’t Breathe 2” backlash by declaring that, “we like to f*** with people.” He then addressed the issue with more nuance, explaining that he views the film following “The Blind Man” in the same manner as a series like “Game of Thrones” that asks for empathy for similarly monstrous characters. He went on to explain that The Blind Man is “more of an anti-villain. He may think he’s not, or do some things that’ll make him escape it temporarily, but he is. He’s a shadow character, not so much the protagonist. There’s so much more to the story.”
“We like to f*ck with people. He’s more of an anti-villain. He may think he’s not, or do some things that’ll make him escape it temporarily, but he is. He’s a shadow character, not so much the protagonist. There’s so much more to the story”.
Sayagues then weighed in to say that things won’t be as clear cut as they seem, with every character painted in shades of gray and wrapped in mystery, so who’s to say that we won’t discover the Blind Man is the villain of the piece all along?
“If it’s clear who the good guys and bad guys are, you know who’s gonna make it, right?”
It’s just a few weeks until Don’t Breathe 2 hits theaters, and the box office showings of A Quiet Place Part II and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It have shown that jump scares are capable of bringing people to the theater, and after the first installment earned almost $160 million globally, there’s already a built-in audience desperate to see what the Blind Man finds himself getting up to next.
