When the “Don’t Breathe” trailer dropped three months ago, I was immediately hooked onto the premise of the film. The plot seemed simple, yet original.

After assuming the blind man won’t threaten them, three experienced thieves decide to intrude into a blind man’s home with him still inside. Of course, things are not as they seem. The trailer shows the blind man take away one of the intruder’s guns, shooting him a few seconds later.

This movie was from the creators of 2012’s Evil Dead, which got me excited. This movie delivered on everything it was advertised as: intense, twisted and fun.

The movie doesn’t waste anytime into getting to the plot of the movie, as the opening few scenes briefly introduce the characters before they ready themselves to break into the antagonist’s house. Getting into the interesting parts of the story rather quickly was definitely something this movie did right, as many similar horror movies try too hard to make the audience like uninteresting characters.

However, Don’t Breathe still manages to make us engaged into the characters. Rather than having entire scenes describing the life of each character, the well-written dialogue and chemistry between the actors, especially between main characters Rocky (Jane Levy) and Dylan (Dylan Minnette), give us more than enough to make us care for the characters, allowing every conflict experienced in the movie to become more intense and meaningful.

Although the story wasn’t what brought people to the theaters, it certainly was good, considering it was a horror movie. There were a few scenes that really shed light on some characters. The movie explains why the Blind Man does what he does, and it is written into the movie in a way that isn’t cheesy, but, actually, quite emotional. The story also has many twists and turns, making it into a roller-coaster-like experience.

The most memorable feature of the movie is by far the intensity. Director Fede Alvarez uses silence and darkness effectively. Long shots following characters throughout rooms of the room produces a sense of urgency. The genius behind the construction of the shots is its simplicity – characters standing nervously still as the Blind Man tries to find them never gets old.

“Don’t Breathe” also gets really messed up. Without spoiling much, the movie does get dark. Although the movie is twisted, it’s subtle, which is a good thing. Too many horror movies these days having crazy demonic, earth-shaking, gory scenes attempting to shock, which usually tend to fall flat. Instead, “Don’t Breathe” limits itself to the characters inside the house, and the Blind Man inside with them.

The movie does have horror movie cliches dispersed in it, though. Many scenes of characters not running quite as fast as they would, or just plain idiotic moves, exposes some of the flaws in the movie. The movie also does try to get a little too emotional at the end, when instead it came off as worn-out.

The acting in the movie was surprisingly great as well. I was unimpressed with Minnette’s performance in in “Alexander and the Terrible,” “Horrible,” “No Good” and “Very Bad Day.” However, his much more mature acting in this movie was unexpectedly good. Stephen Lang does a splendid job as the creepy blind man, definitely stealing the show in the movie.