Don’t Breathe , the suspense thriller running in a theatre near you, has a blind antagonist, Norman Nordstrom, played by Stephen Lang. Talking about the movie in Los Angeles,
director Fede Alvarez says, “We started with the idea of having robbers as the protagonists because I thought we don’t see much of those stories. We knew that having them break into someone’s house would make for a great, suspenseful story but we knew that was not enough. We needed a worthy opponent. While in the movies there have been great heroes who are blind, we thought why don’t we take that and make him evil. However, I don’t think he is evil actually.
“He is doing the minimum possible to make sure the robbers don’t leave the house and he gets where he needs to. How we came about the idea, we have no idea. I think someone said what if he is blind and we started thinking of all the advantages the story would have and how it would make every scene unique.”
The Uruguayan filmmaker doesn’t feel it conveys a troubling message about disability.
“On the contrary, it is a fight against stereotypes. In movies, the blind person is shown as needing
help or as a wise man who sees a lot. We have worked against that stereotype.”
Fede, who made his debut with the Evil Dead reboot feels there are pros and cons to suspense thrillers as well as supernatural films. “Each world has its advantages and disadvantages. I
love the real world because we cannot get away with anything. In ghost stories, you can have a door slamming and when you open the door there is nothing there, which means there is a
ghost. In Don’t Breathe , every scare creates a scene and that for me is exciting. It puts me in a place, it forces me to create a scene that works.”
About what he likes or dislikes about the horror genre, the 38-year- old says, “The only thing I dislike about it is that sometimes the world of cinema looks down on horror films. Some of the best directors in the world made horror movies. The rest is great. It is one of those genres along with comedy where when you watch with an audience, you get a very physical and verbal response in the theatre itself. You know by the end of the movie whether people loved it or not.”
