Stephen Lang confirms that sequel to Don’t Breathe is in the works

Fede Alvarez’s horror-thriller, Don’t Breathe, ended on a terrifying cliffhanger. Now, Stephen Lang has confirmed that Don’t Breathe 2 will continue the story.

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The year of 2016 was a great period for horror fans as we got to see movies like The Eyes of My Mother, The Wailing, Train to Busan, Under the Shadow and 10 Cloverfield Lane, to name a few. However, it was Fede Alavarez’s Don’t Breathe that gave some strong competition with a budget of $9 million and a ton of classic scares. And according to Stephen Lang, the Blind Man is coming back.

Don’t Breathe was based on the premise of a home-invasion gone wrong from the perspective of the invaders. The raw action and the claustrophobic setting was so impressive that it garnered a lot of appreciation from critics and raked in a whopping $150 million worldwide.

So, with a profit of around $50 million, it was no surprise when Alvarez had hinted at a sequel back in 2016. However, as there were no further updates on this project, Screen Rant asked Lang about Don’t Breathe 2 and his quick reply was certainly relieving.

"“Oh yeah, we’re doing a sequel.”"

While Don’t Breathe was an original movie penned by Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues, Alvarez is currently knee-deep in sequels and reboots. After successfully remaking Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead, the director is in charge of rebooting the Millennium series with The Girl in The Spider’s Web, starring Claire Foy as the titular Lisbeth Salander. Additionally, Alvarez has been roped in to direct a sequel/spin-off of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. So, although there’s no further information or an official release date, we can expect Alvarez to utilize his enthusiasm for fleshing out preexisting stories in the case of Don’t Breathe 2 as well.

What can we expect from Don’t Breathe 2?

Don’t Breathe followed the story of Rocky (Jane Levy), Alex (Dylan Minnette) and Money (Daniel Zovatto), who consistently robbed houses that were secured by Alex’s father’s security company. However, as Alvarez was criticized for relying too much on gore for Evil Dead, the director decided to subvert every horror trope in Don’t Breathe. Hence, instead of having the blind host in danger, Alvarez put the invaders against a threat that was far more dangerous than them. And as the ending saw the Blind Man making it alive without reporting Rocky, Don’t Breathe will probably be about him hunting her down and exacting his sick form of revenge.

With almost little to no music and shooting the entire film in one location, Alvarez had managed to create a sense of tension that shook me to the core. As the director has a penchant for creating one-location movies, there’s a possibility that Don’t Breathe 2 will use that aspect in a fresh way. However, while Lang’s Norman Nordstrom operated in a territory that was well known to him, the sequel might test his skills as he’ll have to follow Rocky wherever she lands. Additionally, since Alvarez hates redoing tropes, we can expect him to provide a shocker that’ll be equivalent to the Turkey Baster scene.

"“The challenge obviously is we just don’t want to do the same movie again and just have 2 in it. We’ll feel so embarrassed if we do that. At first our reaction when they told us was no no no no no that’s Hollywood, that’s the devil pushing us to do something just because we can. And then we had an idea that we got really excited about, we won’t tell you what it is, it’ll spoil the whole thing…”"

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With recent hits like It and Get Out, the horror genre has witnessed a magnificent revival and has shown the capability to create films that are successful, critically as well as financially. As Fede Alvarez has achieved something similar through Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe, there’s no doubt that he’ll do the same for the sequel. In addition to that, as we know about the hate-filled relationship between Nordstrom and Rocky, it’ll be interesting to see them face-off again through Levy and Lang’s powerful performances.

What are your thoughts on Don’t Breathe 2? Let me know in the comments.