Brian Duffield’s No One Will Save You brings two classic horror tropes together, by approaching extra-terrestrial horror with a home invasion tweak that is both ingenious but irritating with its offering. Following Brynn – played by a solid Kaitlyn Dever – as a more earthbound Ellen Ripley, as she protects herself (and childhood home) from the arrival of some unwanted guests.
Brynn is a deeply complicated character. She is a prim and proper, but also problematic protagonist who is seen as an outcast within her community. The way in which she is shunned by her fellow suburbanites tells a story that isn’t revealed until much later into the movie’s lean runtime. She masks her misery from the loss of her mother and best friend behind a sheepish smile, but what makes her more complex is due to Duffield’s script. And by that I mean there isn’t one. With a surprising creative twist, there are a grand total of two lines uttered throughout the movie, leaving much of what it has to say to its visual department.
Duffield likes to keep his focus on Dever in its earlier stages, obscuring the onlookers through lens with blur and background, slowly building the tension before we finally meet the faces of her home invaders. They are your typical alien by design. I mean if you were to ask any child over the age of 9 to draw you their interpretation of what they believe aliens would look like, this is it. But Duffield has stated that as an intentional stylistic choice, and keeps things fresh by not just settling for the one characteristic or look and upgrades them with some rather unique communitive traits and quirks.
The film runs a little over the 90 minute mark and for at least two thirds of it, Duffield nails the atmosphere and tone. When Brynn makes a break outside of her isolation however, the film forces you out of its cocoon of chaos, only to have us end up right back there again for its final act. The visual effects and sound design are perhaps what is most rewarding here and could’ve hugely benefited from a single location setting optimising its great use of lighting and more centralised survival theme. Instead it abandons this in favour of a little worldbuilding and character context that it could have done without the need to switch landscapes or tone.
Brynn has plenty of close encounters (pun intended) with the aliens, and these moments are captured with confidence. She’s no Ripley, but her past trauma is a clear indication of her fighting spirit. Her panicked panting turning to gnarly grunts as she stabs, outsmarts and blows up her alien invaders one after the other. Sadly it seems all for nothing after fumbling its finale with a message that jousts with grief and a final revelation that will unlikely scratch the itch of the more outspoken horror fan. But Duffield’s dive into alien horror isn’t something to entirely gloss over, with the total absence of dialogue being a neat narrative choice, and finding its footing with some interesting constraints in a more-than-manageable runtime.
Critical Clay 