‘No One Will Save You’ Review – Alien Invasion Horror Film Is One Of The Year’s Best

UFOs are beaming down this spooky season and landing on Hulu for one of the best horror movies this year. No One Will Save You stars Kaitlyn Dever as Brynn Adams, a young woman who awakes in the middle of the night to find her home under assault by a squad of gray aliens. Cue the nightmare fuel! The teaser suggests this is a home invasion thriller, but the result is much deeper than advertised. What awaits the audience grabs hold from the first frame and throughout the ninety-minutes delivers the perfect amount of emotion and shudders. By the time the credits roll, audiences may want to bolt their doors, fasten their windows and keep one eye open on the night sky as they countdown the hours until sunrise.

Upon watching, viewers will find there is no door big enough, or in this case home secure enough, to keep the aliens out when they pay an unexpected visit. The movie is a pulse-quickening ride wasting no breath in accelerating from zero to one hundred. Abduction and probes are on the itinerary and there are echoes of recent sci-fi crowd-pleasers such as A Quiet Place and Nope. There are even dashes of John Carpenter’s The Thing, particularly as Dever’s character channels her inner R.J. MacReady and does battle against the aliens. Unnerving as much as it is thrilling, this story is full of twists and bends, much like the contorted skeletons of the martians on film. There are even some fresh takes on the UFO premise which audiences will appreciate, as well as be aghast by the amount of menace, and even more so by the provoking ending.

On a scale between one and ten, these aliens are an eleven on the creep factor. Minimalist in the design, but effective in capturing the archetypal extraterrestrial image audiences have come to expect. For a streaming movie the VFX do not disappoint. No soulless digital bipeds are on display. These aliens are distinct, and despite their classical appearance are some of the most-life-like digital creations. Given the current fascination over ETs, the timing for this movie is prime. As audiences in the real-world debate whether they are alone in the universe, this story excels at bringing those questions and fears to top of mind. At the start audience are kept in the dark, much like Brynn. There is a stellar use of shadow and lighting, giving the aliens a would-be slasher vibe that only becomes unearthly and thus more heart-pounding once the reveal is complete.

Despite its ninety-minute runtime, this is no small movie. It plays like recent sci-fi epics that have graced the silver screen, and yet it still finds new ways to invert the alien tropes and familiar story beats. Yes, there are mysterious crop circles on the ground and flying saucers hovering overhead but the movie flows more like a character study that just so happens to feature aliens invading Earth. What could have been an hour-and-change of Brynn sabotaging the space invaders a la Home Alone digs deeper in exploring the themes of pain and suffering, and ultimately the question of what it means to be human. Given its scope this movie would play well on the big screen, but as the landscape this Halloween season is already stacked, streaming may prove advantageous and offer a compelling alternative to the litany of torturous and possession themed movies on the docket.

As much as this is an alien spectacle, emphasis on character lies at the center and thus raises the stakes. Dever delivers an engrossing performance, despite speaking very few lines of dialogue; a bold choice, but the risks are worth the rewards. Dever through both eyes and expressions tells a story. It is emotional, creepy, unhinged, and downright mortifying.

The character of Brynn as the sole-focus is the movie’s beating-heart. She is an isolated woman who harbors scars from childhood. Her trauma, while kept a mystery until the third act, ultimately pays dividends to the movie once she is aware that extraterrestrial intruders are in fact the things that go bump in the night. The movie is never short on scares; from Brynn’s militant defense of her home, to the adrenaline-infused climax.

The movie never forgets its genre, and spreads the chills evenly throughout, but ultimately this sci-fi flick is more than the sum of its creepy parts. Once aboard audiences will find at its core No One Will Save You is a survival story. Survival, not just from an alien abduction but from guilt and pain. Director Brian Duffield deserves high praise for crafting a fastidious thriller that delivers a complex heroine, riveting finale and a PG-13 rating that manages to successfully thread the needle in a number of chilling ways.

Despite landing on streaming, this movie is no back-burner – a welcome surprise that deserves rewatches, both for study and fun. Freeze framing and rewinding are a must and die-hard fans of the genre as well as causal watchers will devour this unique take on the alien concept. A perfect movie for this spooky time of year, and one that leaves a lasting imprint, much like the probing done aboard those flying saucers…

No One Will Save You is currently available to stream on Hulu. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcA02w6rm44]