This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Family Matters
Plot Overview
Eleven-year-old Phoenix (Madelyn Grace)
having been plucked from the perimeter of her house fire some eight
years ago has been the benefactress of her Navy ex-SEAL deliverer's
survival training, along with her regular home schooling. Hungry for
the companionship of kids her age, or just for a change of scene,
she chafes at the bit. Her de facto guardian blind Norman (Stephen
Lang) relents under pressure and lets her accompany the delivery lady
on her run into town. Delivering flowers to her mother's memorial
draws unexpected attention.
You can pick your friends, but you can't
pick your relatives. It's hard enough even for young adults to decide
which course to take, as in this excerpt from a Robert Stone novel:
It was impossible to suggest one road over another to kids who became virtually different people over the course of their college years. They might bitterly regret something they had done or not done, a choice they came to believe they had been tricked into … ¶The fragile bark of human design being what it was, within a year things fell apart. Voyages of self-discovery found strange destinations; gathering storms broke. After something of a conversion experience—to what was unclear—it seemed the young birth mother wanted some relationship with her baby. Then she changed her mind. (40)
Family conflict devolves into commando
action among the various military-trained hoodlums, heroes, and honchos
after the blind man douses the house lights to make a level playing field.
Ideology
Here we witness a clash of generations within the schema of (Prov. 30:15-16) “The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.” The relentless grave draws people to it through their old age when they become (“Give!”) fundamentally dependent on others. And wombs keep churning out young'uns who are also (“Give!”) dependent on others until they mature. The genius of this movie is Phoenix matures early as her only companions are adult(s,) and her mother (“She's our cook”) suffered debilitating lung damage in a meth fire, reducing her life expectancy. When these two meet, the plot thickens based on their conflicting needs.
“The earth that is not filled with water” is an old story, as mentioned in Stone: “‘There's not much wrong with the world that doesn't come from having too many people in it.’ ¶‘But Maud, the world is people.’ ¶‘I thought it was mostly water.’” (117) Phoenix secures herself in a locked steel storage box that one of the baddies proceeds to flood. Unless the water is dumped she will drown. We need our habitations dry—water gone—to survive. Norman orders plants for a garden—he's already flush with Insect Killer—and has a greenhouse with a roof to keep out water. A drained world (after Noah's flood) is necessary for our survival.
“The fire that saith not, It is enough” is human (animal) metabolism that must be fueled. We see Norman stocking the pantry with canned goods. We also see him replenishing Shadow his Rottweiler's food bowl. Mouths must be fed.
Production Values
“” was directed by Rodo Sayagues. It was written by Rodo Sayagues as well, with character and setting derived from director Fede Alvarez's original “Don't Breathe” (2016). It stars Stephen Lang, Brendan Sexton III and Madelyn Grace. Lang convincingly played a blind ex-soldier. Grace gave an impressive performance as an eleven-year-old getting too big for her britches, in a big bite of screen time she handled well.
MPAA rated it R for strong bloody violence, gruesome images, and language. There's a worthy post credits scene featuring the dog. Runtime is a scary 1 hr. 38 min.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This was a great sequel, more excellent than the first film. It can be viewed as a singleton. It's got a good story, good action and creepy villains. Be prepared to bail if parts of it are too horrific. Even some of the bad guys bailed out.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Don't watch this movie alone. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Stone, Robert. Death of the Black-Haired Girl. Copyright © 2013 by Robert Stone. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org