Movie Review: No One Will Save You

It’s always exciting to see a movie put a genuinely fresh spin on a well-worn story, and writer / director Brian Duffield’s alien invasion film No One Will Save You does just that to mostly wonderful effect. As the story begins, we are introduced to Brynn (Kaitlyn Dever), who lives alone in her childhood home, situated in the woods down a long dirt driveway. She copes with the deaths of her mother and childhood best friend Maude by writing letters to the latter and constructing a model of the nearest town in her living room. She takes jobs as a seamstress to support herself, and when she drives into town to send out her latest orders, the residents she encounters along the way treat her with resentment, leering in her direction and whispering malicious rumors about her behind her back. This mysterious treatment has led her to be incredibly anxious around other people, despite clearly yearning for human interaction.

That evening she is awakened by a strange sound. Looking out the window, she sees her trash cans tipped over and assumes raccoons got into them, so she heads for the stairs to deal with the mess. Upon reaching her landing however she sees that her front door is ajar and that someone appears to be moving around her living room. As the intruder roams about her house, she catches a better glimpse of it and discovers it to be a vaguely humanoid alien. Smartly, she begins to back her way towards her bedroom, but of course the floorboards creak and the alien is alerted to her presence, leading to a relentlessly tense game of cat and mouse throughout her home. As the story progresses, Brynn’s physical and social isolation mean she has no choice but to fight back on her own as the scale of the invasion is gradually revealed.

This is a fairly simple and straightforward plot, but it’s still impressively conveyed in a manner almost entirely devoid of spoken dialogue (unless you want to count the incoherent clicks and bleats from the aliens), meaning all of the story beats are conveyed through visual cues and Kaitlyn Dever’s facial expressions. As the only real character, the success or failure of the whole movie largely rests on her shoulders and she proves to be more than up to the task, giving one of the more memorable performances of the year as she ably conveys the myriad emotions required to portray someone so emotionally damaged dealing with such extreme conditions.

While the mystery of just why the local population treats Brynn so poorly immediately draws in viewers (and don’t worry, the answer is ultimately revealed), the almost non-stop suspense that follows the first appearance of the aliens will keep them hooked. Duffield and cinematographer Aaron Morton assemble some striking and eerie images, enhanced by Joseph Trapanese’s unsettling score. The alien design at first seems fairly standard, but as more is revealed about them, from the jitteriness of their movements to the increasingly bizarre varieties among them, they turn out to be more creative and wind up ranking among some of the more frightening creatures ever put to film. The final act begins to take on some dreamlike qualities that can make it a little harder to follow, but it leads to a satisfying conclusion that raises the question of just what a person might be willing to tolerate in exchange for companionship. No One Will Save You has a few flaws but is easily one of the scariest and most unique movies of the year, and one that deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible. ★★★★