The Impulse-Image of Vampiric Capital and the Politics of Vision and Disability: Evil and Horror in Don’t Breathe

Abstract

This article examines affective and semiotic aspects of Don’t Breathe’s construction of evil and horror. To work towards a post-genre approach to horror, evil and horror are re-examined and differentiated on a discursive level in a first theoretic step. The following film analysis takes Fede Álvarez’ 2016 horror film Don’t Breathe as its case. In a first part, it draws from the Marxian metaphor of vampiric capital and employs a Deleuzian approach to film in focusing on the impulse-image of Don’t Breathe. In a second part, the analysis of evil and monstrous horror then takes into account political notions of the film’s themes of blindness and (dis)ability, thereby moving from a (primarily) affective perspective to a rather semiotic discussion.