The following contains very mild spoilers for the upcoming sequel Don’t Breathe 2, so stop reading now and head on over to another wonderful story if you do not want to know anything about the film.
The horror genre often produces a number of surprise hits every couple of years. Scary films can usually pull off their fear tactics on a limited budget, and if the story really connects with an audience, then it’s easy for a studio to have a financial win on its hands. This happened in 2016 with Don’t Breathe, a tense exercise from director Fede Alvarez that performed like gangbusters with horror crowds. That movie has produced a sequel, with Stephen Lang returning, but it was his young costar Madelyn Grace who we recently sat down with and asked her what the hardest scene to shoot was on the sequel. Her answer is in the video above.
There’s not a lot that I am able to tell you about Madelyn Grace’s character from Don’t Breathe 2, even with the spoiler alert at the top of this page. I can tell you that her character, Phoenix, lives with The Blind Man (Stephen Lang), from the first film. And I can tell you that eventually, they have to defend themselves from some pretty nasty dudes. It all escalates very quickly, as one might imagine with The Blind Man being involved.
Don’t let Madelyn Grace’s young age deceive you. The Grey’s Anatomy vet gives it her all in the brutal and often terrifying Don’t Breathe 2. However, when breaking down the hardest scene for her to film, she also made it sound like Don’t Breathe 2 director Rodo Sayagues went the extra mile to make Grace comfortable, and she really appreciated it. The scene she describes involves her being in a box that is filling up with water (I won’t tell you why). And when she thought back to filming on set that day, Grace told CinemaBlend:
The water scene was one of my favorites to do, and that was probably runner up to one of the hardest. But it was so much fun. But they were only planning to maybe do half a day of it, because they didn’t know how a kid would react to being in the water. But I actually liked it so much that they did a second day of it, because I liked it. … I’m not claustrophobic, so I was comfortable with being in a small space. And it was 95-degree heated water, so I was like in a hot tub. It was just super comfy!
“Comfy” usually isn’t a word you expect to hear regarding a horror movie, but that just goes to show that making these movies isn’t anywhere near as tense as watching them. Good for Madelyn Grace. I would have extended that shoot to two days, also, if I had that ability.
You don’t have to have seen the original Don’t Breathe to follow along with the sequel, but it goes without saying that if The Blind Man intrigued you, and you want to see what else he manages to get into, then make sure you check out Don’t Breathe 2 when it opens in theaters, exclusively, on August 13. We will have our review on CinemaBlend shortly, and more junket coverage as the week rolls on.
