Sci-fi flicks dealing with alien invasions have been done constantly in Hollywood for many decades. Trying to keep the genre fresh isn’t as easy for filmmakers to try to keep them hooked through the movie’s entire runtime, which seems to work with Brian Duffield’s latest film No One Will Save You. The director’s latest project doesn’t change the formula in this story about an alien invasion, but he does keep the stakes high for our main character played by Kaitlyn Dever. By using tropes from other classic alien films, Duffield has managed to create something unique while also serving as a love letter to this subgenre of movies. What plays out is a tense sci-fi horror flick that also deals with a lot of human emotion.
In No One Will Save You, Dever portrays a young woman living in isolation in her family home as she deals with the losses of both her mother and her best friend, Maude. She keeps to herself and often writes letters to her deceased friend while building a model version of her town during most of her time. She often avoids the townspeople, who have somehow decided to shun her after an incident that may be related to Maude’s death. During one night, she hears something going on in her house, thinking it’s an intruder. However, she discovers that this perpetrator is not from this planet. As she fights against this extraterrestrial intruder, she has to fight to survive the next few days with an impending invasion on the horizon.
What Duffield does well is keeping things intense as the camera focuses on Dever as her emotions pretty much explain what she’s dealing with. The tension builds as we get glimpses of this alien creature inside the house thanks to the cinematography by Aaron Morton. These aliens emit light in the house and it’s hard to know what kind of abilities they have, creating this horrific atmosphere where Dever’s character Brynn must rely on instinct alone to fend off them. Framing this strange encounter like a home invasion is a smart move on Duffield’s part to keep things small but raise the creepy factor a notch to keep audiences on their toes. Just keeping things in the dark as we spot shadows and silhouettes of the creature works during the first half of the film as the imagination of just how scary the creature would be the ultimate fear.
One of the most creative things behind No One Will Save You is that the movie doesn’t rely so much on dialogue and uses the facial expressions of our main character to keep things entertaining. Brynn has the most time on camera, so the audience gets to experience everything that she’s feeling, whether it’s guilt or fear, speech is secondary to what is happening on screen. Rather than telling us what’s going on, it’s the action that gives the film its strength. The film also gives glimpses into what is happening in Brynn’s mind, so it acts more like a character study just as much as an alien invasion thriller.
Kaitlyn Dever carries the film on her shoulders, but it ultimately pays off thanks to her performance. Despite not getting much dialogue through the film’s runtime, Dever gives a powerful presence as Brynn with the use of her facial expressions to deliver fear, panic, and anxiety as she fights off against these alien invaders. Dever has proven over the years that she can handle drama and comedy in many of her films and television roles, but this is the first time she gets to use everything at her disposal to be front and center as she tells the emotional journey of this character through her eyes. Brynn has a lot of mystery to her character, but the film slowly reveals her background as it weaves into the alien invasion part of the story creating some human moments with her.
One of the things that can hold the film back is the use of visual effects to portray these aliens. We get the typical look of these big grayish-looking aliens when we first spot them. It would be great if the visual department got a little creative with the design rather than just the classic version we get. Some designs look terrifying like the smaller alien creatures as well as the larger ones. The scary abilities that are shown by them can be scary as well, like levitation and parasites that can control the body. Duffield took inspiration from many sci-fi classics like Signs, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind to create this one-of-a-kind story that pays homage to them while also creating a unique experience for the viewer.
No One Will Save You is a surprisingly entertaining horror flick that utilizes more emotions and scares to create tension. It is a movie that deserves to be shown in a theater rather than a streaming service, but it will be on many audiences’ must-see lists this year as far as horror goes. The movie parallels much between an alien invasion and the main character’s grief to make a thoughtful and scary film. The ending may be a bit confusing to some, but both Dever and Duffield have made something really special for horror and sci-fi fans alike that will become a fan favorite for years to come.
No One Will Save You is now streaming on Hulu.
