Don't Breathe

"A nasty little addition to the minor 2016 horror boom, Don't Breathe tops up its surfeit of straight-forward jump scares with an impressively disgusting third-act reveal. Coming in the wake of the success of fellow mid-range horrors like Lights Out and The Conjuring 2, Don't Breathe has a comparatively grittier aesthetic, which it confidently leans into."

"A muscular exercise in brutal, relentless peril."

"Alvarez quiets his movie down to a game of cat and mouse, a luxury in a climate in which horror is all about maximum volume."

"While its script could have been written on the back of an envelope, its editing and use of sound design is a triumph."

"A genre film done spectacularly well. If you like your shocks hard, efficient and expertly delivered, this will be one of your films of the year."

"Apart from its thin characters and occasional trite moments, as well as a silly attempt to set up a sequel, "Don't Breathe" is just about perfect."

"A devious and demonstrative piece of home invasion mischief that also leans heavily, and ingeniously, on blindness as a crucial plot device."

"A trapped-in-a-house thriller pitting thieves against an unexpectedly resourceful victim, the lean and mean pic offers scares aplenty and at least a couple of game-changing twists."

"An intense, streamlined exercise in gruesome thrills, with a tiny glimmer of social context (it's all about the economy) which doesn't take away from the exciting struggle to get out of this house of horrors."