'Don't Breathe' is another spectacular late summer surprise

My luck has got to run out sometime. The last two times I've been to the movies I've seen films I've read little about -- other than a couple rave film reviews -- and gone in with next to no preconceived notions, and have walked out thoroughly entertained.

Hell or High Water and now Don't Breathe, are both very much genre movies, and both films play with some of the conventions you come to expect in their respective milieus, but both also spring enough ingenious surprises and terrific performances to feel fresh and even exciting.

I'd put Don't Breathe a couple notches below my favorite chiller of the year, the criminally under-seen Green Room, but it's still fantastically creepy.

It's being marketed as a horror film and it is, but like Green Room its scares are plausible and grounded. I don't have anything against supernatural scary movies per se, but I do think they're harder to pull off. And the more reliant they are on special effects the easier it is to detach yourself from what you're viewing and not be afraid.

Don't Breathe is more relentlessly authentic. It's plot is so simple and accessible I'm surprised no industrious indie filmmaker had attempted it before. Three petty thieves hope to get out of the business by ripping off a blind, aging Iraq War veteran who has been awarded a big settlement for the accidental death of his daughter.

Stephen Lang in Don't Breathe

But just when you start to feel some sympathy for this man the plot thickens and your loyalties shift, all why every breath and every step takes on huge proportions.

Also stalking the scene (just like Green Room) may be one of the most terrifying dogs in movie history.

The cast is largely unknowns -- although character actor Stephen Lang (probably best known for his villainous role in Avatar) works wonders with what could have been a thankless role of the older man. He is aged in the face, but his physique is incredibly imposing -- and his serpentine movements suggest a real history of military service.

The leads all have sympathetic, open faces and give believable performances, but this is really a showcase for the director Fede Alvarez (an acolyte of Sam Raimi), who did a decent remake of the original Evil Dead a few years back, but outdoes himself here.

The movie is doing well at the box office, which is refreshing considering how many great films have tanked this year. Perhaps its a sign that even horror movie fans -- seemingly the least stingy moviegoers -- are starting to refine their palate too.

This is no gorefest, and it does't rely on many -- if any -- cheap jump scares or thrills on the soundtrack. There are a couple plot holes here and there and a grisly third act reveal that in lesser hands could plunge the movie into torture porn territory.

But instead, the script stays smart -- and constantly defies your expectations. From its striking opening shot to its darkly ironic ending, this one is a real keeper and further proof that some of the most interesting mainstream movie-making of late has been in the realm of scary movies.