New & now: No One Will Save You

Add this sci-fi take on home invasion horror to your spooky szn watchlist

In David Gordon Green’s (not very good) The Exorcist: Believer, in theaters starting today¹, it’s suggested that the only way we can truly fight darkness is to look past our various differences and come together as one. It’s a nice thought, but sadly naive in these current tumultuous times, when refusing to look out for one’s fellow man is considered a smart act of self-preservation. Brian Duffield’s new sci-fi horror No One Will Save You offers a harsh truth right there in the title: when the shit goes down, all you have is yourself.

Kaitlyn Dever, thankfully recovered from the debacle of Dear Evan Hansen (a different kind of horror movie), is Brynn, who, following the death of her mother a few years earlier, lives alone in a big house outside a picturesque little town. Shy and anxious, Brynn has to rehearse pleasantries before traveling into town to run errands. Her nervousness turns out to be warranted, however: for reasons that aren’t immediately explained, she’s treated with silent, unfriendly coldness by everyone in town. It makes it all the more poignant that her home seems to be reflective of another, more idealized time, and it’s where she feels the safest.

The safety is infringed upon when, in the middle of the night, an alien in the classic “Gray Man” style (but with creepy humanoid feet that look like they have fingers for toes) enters Brynn’s house for a look-see. It does not come in peace, and Brynn responds by bashing it in the head with a ceramic model of a house, in an appropriate response to the alien damaging her house.

After a decidedly hostile reception at the police station before she even gets a chance to explain what happened, Brynn opts to simply try to leave town (which, frankly, she should have done a long time ago²). Needless to say, that also doesn’t go well (otherwise it’d be the end of the movie), she’s forced to return to her house, and, well, you know, the movie isn’t called Don’t Worry, Someone Will Rescue You at the Last Minute.

In a nod to A Quiet Place, there’s almost no dialogue in No One Will Save You. It’s a little gimmicky, but also nicely emphasizes Brynn’s isolation. Once it becomes apparent that many of her neighbors are being turned into mindless, violent pod people³, she can’t even take a chance at approaching any of them for help in the hope that maybe they’ll stop shunning her for a moment. With her car and phone disabled, she’s completely on her own in the face of something she doesn’t recognize or understand, except that it means to do her harm.

No One Will Save You is an occasionally confounding film, staying within the boundaries of a conventional cat-and-mouse thriller (except here the cat is a mind-probing alien) for the majority of the time, before turning into an existential drama about grief⁴ for the last fifteen minutes. The climax is also interestingly ambiguous, not in what happens, exactly, but in what it means for Brynn⁵. It’s unexpectedly poignant, but perhaps not in the way you think it would be.

Much of the final third of the movie takes place in the dark of night, so get ready to either turn the lights off when you’re watching it, or adjust that TV brightness. No One Will Save You isn’t likely to end up one of the great horror classics, but it’s a fun little thriller that puts an eerie spin on the concept of being alone in your house and hearing something that could just be the wind outside…or something else entirely.

1. You can read my review of it here, if you’re so inclined (and you should be).

2. Once it is revealed why Brynn is treated like a pariah, one wonders why she and her mother stayed, other than the fact that their house is adorable.

3. This movie wears its influences proudly on its sleeve, and that’s okay.

4. This probably accounts for the film’s low audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, because boy do horror fans not like it when a movie tries to be about more than one thing at the same time.

5. Feel free to discuss in the comments if you’ve seen it, just make sure to note for any spoilers.