Don't Breathe 2 4K UHD Screenshots (Patreon)

Video

Taking on a heavily reserved, cold-focused palette, the drained color doesn't have have much to show. However, the deep color does make an impact, giving the litany of dense blues some pop. Flesh tones never reach anything other than flat and pale. An occasional scene takes the uglier yellow-ish amber to extremes, mostly at night to simulate street lights filtering into the scene.

As a 2K source, Don't Breathe 2's upscale is clean enough to preserve detail organically. While by no means comparable to true 4K material, there's enough fidelity and texture to make a difference when compared to an HD version. While predominantly low light in style, focused highlights bring out dynamic qualities in the imagery. It's crisp, and a persistent artificial grain structure only suffers in rare moments, usually in darker areas, so not unusual.

Black levels matter more than most. Don't Breathe 2 involves light sources only as absolutely needed. While lapses happen, they're infrequent, and the majority stands firm. Even in the lowest light, there's variance to the hues. Pure black faultlessly merges with lighter tones, and as such, that appears more natural and nuanced. On the flipside, contrast doesn't have much to offer away from a few day time scenes and flames. Where possible, brightness hits a respectable peak, especially fire. Against black levels like this, it'd be difficult not to.

Audio

Wildly fun sound design pays constant attention to spacing, playing frequent tricks. Amid total silence, Phoenix hears a man walk upstairs directly overhead as she hides under them. Footsteps echo between the speakers, splitting the fronts as much as the rears. Directionality runs at a constant level, and always with absolute precision. Action scenes spare nothing, and make for a dynamic break from the otherwise tense atmosphere.

Equally superb, low-end force sees opportunity in the score as much as from gunshots, physical blows, or other elements. Range is exemplary, potent, and satisfying. For such a small scale story, the Atmos mix suggests something far larger. An explosion pushes enough bass to shake an entire theater room.