Fede Alvarez and Sam Raimi plumb new depths of horror in ‘Don’t Breathe’

Two small objects were stacked on a worktable in the East Hollywood office of filmmaker Fede Alvarez on a recent morning, one prop each from his first two features. From his feature debut, 2013’s “Evil Dead,” was a midsized book, crafted and distressed to look like the mystical ancient tome known as the “Necronomicon.” From his new film “Don’t Breathe” was a simple kitchen baster, its innocent small bulb and pointed end belying the more sinister use it is put to in the film.

“Don’t Breathe” is not unlike that baster on the table, rather unassuming but revealing itself to be darker and capable of being more disturbing than it may appear on first glance. The film is a hybrid horror-shocker and something of a home invasion thriller in reverse, as a trio of thieves find themselves locked in a house with a victim set on not letting them get away.

When “Don’t Breathe” had its world premiere earlier this year at the South by Southwest Film Festival, Alvarez declared that it felt like his first film. The words seemed odd coming from someone who had already made a movie that had earned nearly $100 million worldwide. Given that “Evil Dead” was made with the original film’s writer-director, Sam Raimi, and producer, Rob Tapert, as part of its creative team, it wasn’t so much that the remake felt meddled with or compromised, for Alvarez it just didn’t feel entirely his own.

“It wasn’t that I felt I couldn’t do what I wanted to do on ‘Evil Dead’ and did on this one, it was more my fantasy of how do you get to make movies,” said Alvarez. “You start with a personal movie you write that nobody knows about and you put it out there and then you make something more high profile. I was missing that, I really needed to do that.”

After “Evil Dead,” Alvarez turned down chances to get on the franchise train of comic book movies that now seems a regular part of a young director’s trajectory in Hollywood — “my dream of being a filmmaker was never that way” — preferring instead to go smaller and make an original story instead.

Originally from Uruguay, Alvarez, 38, was living in Montevideo and running a post-production visual effects house when in 2009 he posted online a manic, apocalyptic short film called “Panic Attack!” He awoke the next day to countless messages from interested producers, agents and managers and immediately found himself flown to Hollywood for the start of a process that would end with meeting Raimi and making “Evil Dead.”

“At that point I thought, ‘This town is easy,’” said Alvarez. “You bump into people in the street and they give you a movie deal!”

It was not until after making “Evil Dead” that Alvarez officially moved to Los Angeles, waiting to first see how his adventure in Hollywood might turn out. Raimi and Tapert again helped navigate him through the system on “Don’t Breathe,” producing the film through their Ghost House Pictures label, and assisting in securing financing and distribution.

“I’m not really his mentor, I’m just a friend who has had experiences I can share with him and certain powers I’ve earned that I can share with him also,” said Raimi in a separate interview.

“I feel like I’m a plumber and I’ve got the plumbing skills and I can really recognize another good plumber’s work,” Raimi added. “So I look at myself as a contractor saying, look the guy did good work.”

Alvarez and his co-writer, Rodo Sayagues, came up with the story of a trio of young thieves (Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto) who have been hitting houses in the better neighborhoods of Detroit thanks to codes lifted from a security company. They set their sights on a blind man (Stephen Lang), a vet who lives alone with a rumored cash settlement in the house. Once inside the house they realize he is far from helpless, with reasons of his own to not let them get out.

Though the story is set in Detroit, the majority of the film was shot on soundstages in Budapest. In one of the new film’s most dazzling set pieces, Levy and Minnette are in the basement of the house when Lang turns out the lights and things go completely dark. Alvarez, working again with his “Panic Attack!” cinematographer Pedro Luque, shoots the sequence with a milky look that isn’t quite like the green-tinted view of night vision technology but rather akin to the effect of when your eyes adjust to extreme darkness.

“I’m so happy about that,” said Alvarez. “Every time I make a movie I try to do something that just pushes filmmaking just this much, but is making an advance. Because that’s moviemaking, it’s evolving all the time.”

As the film goes on, the intruders come to realize there is more going on in that house than they initially expected. The film takes an even darker turn when Levy’s character is nearly violated with that kitchen baster. That scene, and the turn toward sexualized violence, stirred some controversy when the film premiered at SXSW and is bound to start more conversations now that the film is meeting wider audiences.

“It’s one of those things I’m actually happy to know polarized people,” said Alvarez. “If I’m making a movie that’s making everybody happy I’m doing something that is watered down. … But that’s what the genre has always been proud of doing, being anarchic and chaotic and just bringing some of that chaos to the comfort of the movie theater where everyone feels safe.”

For his part, Raimi trusts that Alvarez knows what he is doing and just how far he can push audiences.

“I think Fede has the brains to realize that was taboo and only hint and tease the audience without actually showing them the actual act,” Raimi said of the turkey-baster scene. “There are things that are unpleasant to watch, but that’s part of the formula of horror films — the gross out — and I can’t fault anyone for that. It’s just another tool, and the trick is just to use the right amount to make it a really enjoyable, terrifying, fun experience.”

With “Don’t Breathe” tracking to be a box-office hit, Alvarez is looking toward the next thing. He recently became attached to an adaptation of the cult board game “Monsterpocalypse” that he and Sayagues are writing. They also have a number of TV projects in varying stages of development.

Alvarez could see himself branching out to other genres — “though I don’t see myself making a comedy,” he said — but for now he feels the horror-thriller hybrid just may be his strong suit.

“What I love with horror is that it has that power, even with a small budget and simplicity,” said Alvarez. “It can take you to a level of emotion, a feeling that is so strong it gets people jumping in their seats, covering their eyes. They think they are threatened physically even though they know it’s a movie and nothing is going to happen. So I put audiences through very strong emotions and I earn their money.”

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Mark.Olsen@latimes.com

Follow on Twitter: @IndieFocus

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