Stephen Lang reveals he’s finished filming on Don’t Breathe 2. Released in 2016, writer-director Fede Alvarez’s Don’t Breathe put a new twist on the home invasion horror genre with the twisty tale of three would-be thieves who break into the house of a blind man in search of an easy score, only to discover their supposed helpless victim is far more dangerous than they ever imagined.
With its interesting premise, intense suspense and unpredictable narrative, Don’t Breathe went on to be a major hit with $157 million at the box office on a reported budget of just $9.9 million. The film was also a breakthrough for director Alvarez, who went on to do the Evil Dead remake as well as the big-budget studio reboot The Girl in the Spider’s Web. With Alvarez off doing other projects, the inevitable sequel to Don’t Breathe fell into the directorial hands of the original’s co-writer Rodo Sayagues, with Lang returning to reprise the role of the Blind Man.
Though many a film project has been forced to shut down due to the coronavirus, Don't Breathe 2 actually managed to press ahead with filming in Belgrade, Serbia. Now Lang himself has revealed on Twitter that he’s wrapped his own scenes on the movie, and he assures fans that every precaution was taken while shooting continued under COVID restrictions. See Lang’s tweet in the space below:
Lang of course was one of the major reasons the original Don’t Breathe succeeded as well as it did, with his chilling and brutal portrayal of Norman Nordstrom aka the Blind Man. Details about what happens to Lang’s character in Don’t Breathe 2 are being kept under wraps, but it’s been indicated that he is back living alone after surviving the first film, and will have some atoning to do after the horrific things he did in that movie. The first movie’s other surviving main character Rocky (Jane Levy) isn’t set to appear in the sequel as far as anyone knows, so it seems she won’t be the one coming after the Blind Man in the follow-up (and indeed after everything that happened in the original, it’s probably better for Rocky to take her money and run, and not attempt to get revenge).
Given the largely self-contained nature of the original film, it’s fair to ask if there’s even a natural sequel idea that presents itself after Don’t Breathe, notwithstanding the movie’s somewhat open ending. Don’t Breathe 2 could in fact be little more than an attempt to cash in on the success of the first movie, while bringing back a compelling character in the Blind Man perhaps in hopes that he might become an iconic horror villain who could return for multiple films. It remains to be seen if the sequel succeeds in establishing the Blind Man as a new Freddy or Jigsaw, but Lang is certainly capable of bringing a major scare factor to the screen, so perhaps Don’t Breathe 2 will in fact launch a Blind Man-centered franchise.
Source: Stephen Lang/Twitter