October Horror Challenge 2022 #91: "Don't Breathe II"

I heard that this movie was a worthy sequel to the first one. That's the most that I heard, because I hadn't even seen the original movie yet and I was running screaming from any possible spoilers. Now I just watched the original movie five minutes ago and I wanted to see the second one as soon as possible, so I immediately put on the second one. Let's see how this sequel stacks up to the original.

Norman Nordstrom, the blind man from the first movie, has now spent the last four years hiding out in a secluded cabin. He's living with a little girl, and he has effectively recreated his family from before the accident in the first movie. As the movie says, however, there's no shortage of weirdos in the world, and a van full of unseemly individuals is about to kidnap the little girl and take her away, so the old man must find within himself some reserves of strength and a few sadistic tricks up his sleeve if he is to ever get his daughter back.

This movie has things turned around from the original. For everyone who thought they should maybe be rooting for the blind guy in the first movie, here's your chance to root for him now. Though I take umbrage at the description of the house he lives in as a "cabin"-it's a palatial fucking estate as far as I'm concerned. I really like the little girl in this movie. He's trained her well for survival and she's a tough little cookie who rivals her dad (yes, I'm calling him her dad because he's the one raising her, so he's effectively her dad). Plus he goes all "Liam Neeson in Taken" on the kidnappers once they try to take the little girl, so I really was rooting for him this time around.

I see that the old man is still into his creative use of anything he can find as a weapon in this movie (and man's best friend gets a few more turns as a weapon in this movie too). There's a really twisted, nasty twist in this movie that really impressed me (wow, they really went THERE, I'm impressed) that will have you rooting even more for the old man once it happens (at least I was sure as hell rooting for him after that). This movie really makes good use of the gun again, too. Glad to see the old blind guy is still up for using his old tricks as well as his new ones. Plus he's still better at hand-to-hand combat than I will ever be. This really is a worthy sequel to the original (like "The Collection" is a worthy successor to "The Collector"). There's more gore this time around, too. Definitely check this one out.