Warning! Spoilers below for what we saw at the Sony Pictures special footage Q&A event. Don’t Breathe 2 will be released exclusively in theaters nationwide on August 13, 2021.
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Sony Pictures held a special footage Q&A event in Century City for Don’t Breathe 2, the anticipated sequel to the 2016 horror-thriller film about three friends breaking into the home of an elderly blind man, who turns out to be the intruders’ worst nightmare. In the new film, directed by Don’t Breathe co-creator Rodo Sayagues, Norman Nordstrom (Stephen Lang) returns eight years after the first film’s events and seems to have found the family he’s been longing to recreate through his guardianship of 11-year-old, Phoenix (Madelyn Grace). As shown in the trailer, Norman is shown to be truly happy as he trains Phoenix on survivalist skills until they are threatened by new intruders who are clearly after the girl. The evil within Norman is unleashed as he will do whatever it takes to save her.
Don’t Breathe creators and executive producers Fede Alvarez and Sayagues revealed three clips from the upcoming movie. The first clip that was shown, which Alvarez sets up in Norman’s home, was shot in the first week of filming. Norman is preparing to feed his beloved dog, Shadow. As he grabs the kibbles to take outside, he feels the bowl still has food in it and begins to search for Shadow in the woods. Criminals Jim Bob (Adam Young), Jared (Bobby Schofield), and Duke (Rocci Williams) have a sense of Norman’s abilities and invade the home while Norman is out in an attempt to kidnap Phoenix, who uses her survivalist skills to evade capture. The scene is tense as the sound is only filled with creaks and footsteps as the criminals search throughout the home for the child. After finding his dog killed under suspicious circumstances, Norman returns home and goes into fight mode against the invaders, causing a jump scare that left the audience gasping. The footage contrast shown was really dark, which Alvarez assured will be lighter when the film actually releases.
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Sayagues credits the director of photography, Pedro Luque, who is a regular collaborator with Alvarez and Sayagues, for the scene’s structure. Sayagues shares, “Pedro and I [are] just having fun and exploring that. In pre-production, the house is already built and we’ve just been formulating what we would like to do and what we would like to see, how would you like to tell this scene, and then when we got there, how we [would] do it. He has a big camera and there’s always a way and he just figures it out. It’s funny [and] interesting. Sometimes it feels like it’s impossible and never going to happen – you’re never gonna be able to pull that on camera or whatever, but then somehow, it does happen. There’s so many talented people around you. It’s a common goal. As a director, your job is to make it clear what we all want to achieve. Once that is there, [the] magic happens.”
The second clip shown involved super glue. In the garage, Norman is tending to his wounds, sustained from the previous scene, using super glue, but is interrupted by Jared, who is searching for Norman. Norman is able to subdue Jared with the latter being found to with his nose and mouth covered with glue. Jim Bob saves his fellow criminal by doing a disturbing, but smart, type of surgical procedure with a screwdriver that left many in the audience shocked.
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“The most fun with this movie is just figuring how Norman is going to defend himself against these guys, which in this movie, are deadlier and more dangerous than the guys in the first [film],” Sayagues explains before showing the clip. “It’s just figuring out how [this] guy can defend himself and, also, in a fun way that has never been done before.”
The final clip shown during the event has Duke, played by MMA fighter Rocci Williams, taking on Norman in the basement of his home. Alvarez noted that Norman fought against kids who didn’t know what they were doing in the first film. In this film, they wanted Norman to take on a well-trained big guy and see what he could do. In the scene, Duke attempts to lure Phoenix out of her safe box, but is alerted by his colleagues that Norman is present in the basement with him. Duke and Norman battle it out with impressive hand-to-hand combat which showed a lot of ingenuity that hasn’t been seen before in horror-based films. The sound design was highlighted in the scene to add some consequential depth to the fight. Alvarez and Sayagues credit composer Roque Baños for the score for the film, especially for this fight.
“It makes you way more present when you just hear the sound design everything,” says Alvarez. “I think it’s important just to understand how the alignment operates and how [Baños] works. Otherwise, you won’t understand how he did certain things. He just puts you more in tune with every assignment.”
“Usually when you read in the script, you’re not thinking about some sound that much,” Sayagues adds. “But, in this case, you have to. So [it] becomes a narrative element in the story, and that translates into the sound design. [We] understand that it’s in the DNA of the story. So, [the sound] becomes a character [and is] a very important element. [It] allows you to play a lot with it. It’s huge. The sound in this story is huge.”
Don’t Breathe 2 stars Stephen Lang (Avatar, Tombstone), Madelyn Grace (Grey’s Anatomy), and Brendan Sexton III (El Camino, Black Hawk Down). It will be released exclusively in theaters nationwide on August 13, 2021.
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