If A Quiet Place had an on-screen cousin, it would be No One Will Save You. Hulu’s riveting new alien invasion drama contains hardly any dialogue, which amps up the chilling suspense and allows the film to rest on the shoulders of Kaitlyn Dever. The Booksmart and Ticket to Paradise star turns in a powerful performance here as Brynn Adams, a young woman whose tortuous past comes back to haunt her when a mysterious alien invades her home.
Written and directed by Brian Duffield (writer of Cocaine Bear and much more), this film has the makings of a cult following. An extraterrestrial invasion, aliens light-beaming up humans to a spaceship, feverish run-for-your-life sequences, and the creepiest kind of aliens you’ll come across on screen and want to keep watching. The film also stars Dane Rhodes, Lauren L. Murray, Geraldine Singer, and Elizabeth Kaluev, but this is Dever’s baby from beginning to end. No One Will Save You recalls the intensity of Panic Room and the adrenaline rush of War of the Worlds, yet confidently stands out as its own unique creative beast.
A Sci-Fi Horror Thrill
It’s surprising that Disney sent this enthralling thriller to Hulu. You sense it would have held its own at the box office, but let’s be thankful it arrived at all. It’s refreshing to come across a sci-fi thriller that stays on track with its singular focus. Make no mistake: No One Will Save is the story of one person who must fight for her life through horrifying uncertain.
Filmmaker Brian Duffield does a great job taking us into Brynn’s world. She’s quiet, she lives alone, her life is simple. She’s content sewing dresses for her online store; her pet project, an elaborate model village, is a prominent fixture in her old home. A visit to her mother’s grave here, feeding some birds there. You get the sense Brynn wants it this way. And she’s a silent gal, but not because she’s shut down. It’s that very few people want to talk to her. Ah, what happened in Brynn’s past, we wonder, especially after somebody spits on her when she’s out in public.
Duffield foregoes introducing anything that may weigh down the plot and allows the terror to start about 20 minutes in. When Brynn suspects somebody has broken into her home, she soon discovers that it’s not someone, it’s some thing. Are her eyes betraying her? Is that a creepy alien she sees? Indeed it is, and what fun it is to watch this initial sequence play out in Brynn’s home. Duffield’s smart use of lighting is effective and his shots, especially close-ups of Dever — this girl can “act” with her fabulous facial expressions — generate plenty of suspense. And questions. Why has this alien (or aliens?) arrived, and does anybody else know about it?
Your curiosity about Brynn’s past and how she arrived at this juncture in her life are quickly put on pause, because, well, ALIENS! The filmmaker aptly captures the terror involved here and as Brynn manages to thwart of a life-threatening encounter, naturally, she wants to investigate further.
Fear the Aliens
Some of the most effective creative elements the director offers here are the ways the alien sound and how they look. Yes, there’s a big reveal. Early on, in fact. And these alien creatures are as frightening as you’d imagine, even though they are inspired from a 1950s alien look-book. Duffield spices up audiences preconceived ideas of what a standard alien looks like, and the expressions he gives them is as hair-raising as it is unnerving. The aliens’ “flying saucer” even has that Look What We Found At Roswell vibe. And those tractor beams. Not cheesy at all, in fact, and it feeds into the overall terror here.
As the film moves deeper into its final sequences, it becomes clear that Brynn must also deal with something from her past. Something unsettling, sure, but is it related to what’s currently going on? She doesn’t know. Neither do we. It’s here where Duffield takes a moment to allow the film to breathe — just a bit — before sending Brynn off on a roller coaster ride of emotions and frightening confrontations she doesn’t know how to handle. These aliens are a far cry from the civilized peeps you’d find in anything like Star Trek. They don’t hold back. They happy to kill, if they need to.
The director also allows the film to peek into the aliens’ psyche, too. Clearly these beings are also trying to understand something deeper here. Perhaps Brynn. But why? It’s a festive guessing game that keeps you on the edge of your seat. The final 15 minutes of No One Will Save You cull from traditional sci-fi tropes, but it doesn’t take away from what Duffield wants to accomplish here. The horror needs to end at some point. Who gets out alive is anybody’s guess. Bold, inventive, and chilling, No One Will Save You is a wickedly fun treat.
No One Will Save You premieres on Hulu September 22.