Don't Breathe 2 Trailer Amps Up The Home Invasion Horror

When it hit theaters in August 2016, Fede Álvarez's home invasion shocker "Don't Breathe" became the surprise hit of the summer, earning raves from critics and nearly $160 million in worldwide ticket sales. It did so by cleverly turning the home invasion formula on its head when the invaders end up being hunted by their mark: Norman Nordstrom (Stephen Lang), a blind man with a penchant for violence and a dark secret to hide. 

The morally twisted film ends on a slightly ambiguous note, with Jane Levy's Rocky making off with stolen money and the Blind Man, whose secret grotesque secret apparently went undiscovered, ultimately painted as the victim of a horrific home invasion.

Ambiguity aside, "Don't Breathe" hardly begged for a sequel. But that didn't stop Álvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues from making one anyway. "Don't Breath 2" is set to hit theaters on August 13, with a fresh script from the duo and with Sayagues calling the shots from the director's chair. Judging from the official trailer for "Don't Breathe 2," the pair have conjured another brutalist home invasion horror flick that finds Nordstrom taking on a new group of invaders. 

There's a lot to unpack in the "Don't Breathe 2" trailer, but of particular note is that it shows Norman Nordstrom raising a pre-teen named Phoenix (Madelyn Grace). The footage doesn't explain how he came to be Phoenix's guardian, but she's presumably not the result of Nordstrom's vile science experiment from the first film. Whatever the case, the Blind Man now has the replacement daughter he wanted, though Phoenix is apparently wanted just as much by the band of baddies who show up to take her.

More unexpectedly, the "Don't Breathe 2" trailer depicts Nordstrom in a more heroic light as he seeks to save his daughter in another hyper-violent game of cat and mice. That'll be a hard sell given what we already know, but Sayagues recently told IGN that the Blind Man's duality is ultimately what prompted the sequel. 

"We discovered a character with deep emotional and psychological trauma, who, driven by a twisted and sick sense of justice, embarked on a journey that pushed him over the edge and threw him into a downward spiral of madness and violence, which left him in an even much darker place than before," Sayagues said. "In this new movie, we are presenting the question of whether he can rise from the darkness, or on the contrary, sink deeper into it."

The real question, however, is whether viewers can get on board for a pseudo-redemption arc for Nordstrom given his past deeds. Find out when "Don't Breathe 2" hits theaters on August 13.