Director: Brian Duffield
Writer: Brian Duffield
Stars: Kaitlyn Dever, Elizabeth Kaluev, Zack Duhame
Synopsis: An exiled anxiety-ridden homebody must battle an alien who’s found its way into her home.
What I enjoyed about Hulu’s No One Will Save You is that it gets right to the point. By the end of the first act, writer/director Brian Duffield stops pussyfooting around and immerses the viewer in a monster in the house picture that feels fresh and remarkably alive because of its anxiety-ridden plot and lead performance. A chiller where the horror isn’t just lurking around the corner but in the deepest parts of our brain.
That’s because of the performance from Kaitlyn Dever, who has no more than a few dozen words in the entire image and who’s not afraid to look rough, messy, and sweaty like any of us would be as we give chase to something that ranges from looking like a cute E.T. to a giraffe-sized praying mantis with ease.
Very early on, Duffield’s script has the viewer on edge, as Dever’s Brynn Adams seems more isolated than most early twenty-something pretty twenty something to be. Brynn gets snide looks, and she hides at the sight of a middle-aged couple (Geraldine Singer and Dae Rhodes) pushing their way into their golden years. The poor girl seems to have no family, even friends, and, in particular, is alienated (remember that word) by the entire community.
What did Brynn do? Well, that is half the suspense and mystery that lay the foundation. The morning before, Brynn found a small burnt-out circle in her yard, thinking she had to water it because the grass must have died. Later that night, she sees something inhuman outside her door just after her house loses power (including even the phone). The first thirty minutes are as obsessively intense and nail-biting as any thriller you will find this year.
Duffield is a master of alienation, creating dread with every single creak, shadow, light, and pin-sized nail drop from a windowsill. Along with the help of director of photography Aaron Morton, Duffield’s film showcases his keen eye for evocatively ominous visuals, such as the beautiful overhead shot tracking a bus and revealing numerous front lawns with the same circle that Brynn has in her front yard. Each image is meticulously integrated, nicely avoiding your standard cliche jump scares.
While No One Will Save You does delve into some tropes—running from a monster in a house and finding yourself stuck, hiding under the bed, others being overtaken by something unexplainable—they are executed well. It’s a thriller meant to entertain. While we can complain about the generic use of film techniques in mainstream films nowadays, you cannot deny the seamless tone, tension, and suspense that the team of Duffield and Dever build with each passing scene.
Credit should also go to Dever, who excels in film and television and must carry the movie’s weight on her shoulders for the entire 90-plus minutes. With limited dialogue, she skillfully portrays her character’s thoughts and emotions in a way that feels entirely authentic, compelling, and convincing. Yes, before you start rolling your eyes and screaming out loud about this being a horror picture, you should acknowledge that carrying a film by yourself with virtually no one else to play off of or support you is no easy task.
Yet, the ending is so weird that there’s no other word to describe it—the Stepford Wives-inspired moment surprisingly works. The entire film is a giant metaphor for Brynn’s lot in life: being “alienated” by her community, fighting her inner demons, the inner turmoil of acceptance, moving towards self-compassion, practicing mindfulness, taking responsibility, and letting go.
No One Will Save You is such an unrelenting, arm-rest-grabbing, psychological chilling banger that you’ll forgive almost any artistic choice Duffield wants to embrace. His film is a minimalist thriller, virtually dialogue-free, brilliantly simple, and deftly poignant. It has a wickedly satisfying ending that breezes by while leaving the viewer on the edge of their seat.
