Intensity 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Brian Duffield
No One Will Save You is an ambitious and curious film. It is a tightly wound home invasion film with an Alien Invasion theme. That’s not uncommon. What makes this film unique is that it has no dialogue. Actress Kaitlyn Dever carries this film, her emotional performance winning the day. That, and top notch sound and production values makes this worth a watch on HULU.
Full credit to Hulu. No One Will Save You is not your ordinary science fiction thriller. The film takes risks and is ambitious, which is not usually a recipe that streaming channels tap into. Spinning a narrative tale without a word of dialogue is not usually something that audiences are clamoring for. And yet, this managed to be Hulu’s most-watched film in September and October of 2023. It worked.
Captivating production design and seamless visual effects provide a palette that the story can work off of when words are absent. The location also plays a significant role. This is small town USA, where everyone knows everyone. The town itself is a character, and clearly, it has turned on our protagonist. Brynn’s sins are a tightly held secret throughout the movie until they are pried loose by the Alien Invaders.
The Cast:
- Kaitlyn Dever plays Brynn, a solitary young seamstress who struggles to cope with the loss of her mother and her best friend. She lives a shut-in life in the house she grew up in, constructing an idyllic miniature town in her living room. Ironically, the actual town she lives in shuns her for a mistake in her past.
- Elizbeth Kaluev plays Young Brynn, whom we see in flashback scenes.
- Lauren L. Murray plays Brynn’s mother, whom we also see in flashbacks.
- Evangeline Rose plays Young Maude, Brynn’s best friend from childhood.
A Short Synopsis
We meet Brynn in her beautiful restored bungalow. She is sewing clothing for her online business but takes time to admire her pet project, an idyllic miniature model town. Brynn appears to be a woman displaced from time; her taste in music and dress is appropriate for the 1940s, but we know this is a modern tale because she has a Subaru Outback. After making a quick trip to town to drop off some parcels, she stops by her mother’s recent grave, being careful to avoid contact with a number of the townsfolk. As our introduction to Brynn concludes, we catch her writing apologetic letters to her BFF, Maude.
She is awoken in the middle of the night by trash cans that have been upturned. But it isn’t raccoons. There is movement inside the house. Aliens are actively rummaging through the dining room. Brynn sneaks back to her bedroom, but the invader takes notice and comes searching for her. After a prolonged hide-and-seek chase, where the alien uses telekinesis to batter her, Brynn kills the intruder in the head with part of her broken miniature town.
That morning, the little grey man is still in her hallway, dead. Unfortunately, her landline rotary phone is also dead, and her power is out, as is her Subaru. Forced to bike into town, she encounters signs that she wasn’t the only one who got attacked last night. Crop circles, a turned-up mail van, and vandalized houses are evidence of alien activity. Brynn has a bad relationship with the sheriff’s department, so now she is at a loss.
The aliens are not done with her yet. What’s more, they are taking control of the townsfolk, implanting them with parasites. Now on the run, Brynn has to face an onslaught of invaders on her own.
Evaluation
For a film that is tackling a familiar trope, the alien abduction home invasion, No One Will Save You feels wholly original. Part of this is in the unconventional delivery method, and some of it is in the subtle messaging. ”No one will save you!” is not a cry of panic. It is a call to courage. Save YOURSELF. Brynn does not give up; she borrows from the school of Home Alone and battles back. Kevin would be proud of her industriousness. I also appreciated that the invaders were bold but not indestructible villains and that, though they were doing terrible things, they were not mustache-twirling evil beings.
The lovely irony of the idyllic model town juxtaposed against the seemingly idyllic real town frames the story. Brynn wants to hit the reset button. The anachronistic lifestyle of Brynn is also a beautiful and telling counterpoint. It is visually arresting as well as compelling. Brynn is a survivor, who is playing by her own rules. She holds onto the past perhaps a bit longer than she should. But, she is fiercely independent, and this comes in handy when facing off against alien invaders.
All this would be for nothing if not for the expressive performance from Kaitlyn Dever. This is essentially a one-woman show, as the rest of the cast is there to provide a context for her trials. She must experience joy, frustration, terror, grief, shame, and satisfaction without saying a word. Certainly, this performance will end up on our 2024 Thingie Awards nomination list.
The curious, dreamy conclusion may be open to different interpretations. Is it too good to be true? I found it to be bittersweet, a bit romantic with sinister undertones. Your mileage may vary. It would not surprise me if the ending turns off some viewers.
Concluding Thoughts
Brian Duffield has been quietly developing quite a resume in the genre. He has written screenplays for several underappreciated titles, including The Babysitter, Love and Monsters, and Underwater. No One Will Save You is his directorial debut, which makes his decision to write and direct a movie without dialogue particularly daring. In order to successfully execute a movie without spoken or narrative exposition, the visual execution of the film needs to be on point, and by that measure, this movie is a huge success.
All of this points to bright futures for Duffield and Dever, both still establishing their reputations in Hollywood. Kudos to veteran cinematographer Aaron Morton, production designer Ramsey Avery, and sound designer James Miller who all turn in top-flight efforts. This film would be a welcome addition to both Episode 136 UFO Horror and Episode 106 Abduction Horror, where we discussed alien invasions. No One Will Save You would certainly rank towards the top of the films in those discussions.
No One Will Save You earned a PG-13 rating for violence, a little bit of body horror, and intensity. It is currently still streaming on Hulu.
Review by Eric Li
