No One Will Save You (2023)
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No One Will Save You Movie Review
No One Will Save You is a 2023 science fiction horror film directed by Brian Duffield and starring Kaitlyn Dever. It is a very good genre feature.
A young woman who’s been alienated from her community finds herself in a face-off against a host of extraterrestrial beings who threaten her future while forcing her to deal with her past. This movie was directed by Brian Duffield, the filmmaker behind 2020’s ‘Spontaneous’, which was this odd, but rather effective mixture of genres. For his second feature, he chose to go into horror as well as SF territory to mostly great results, though the originality that was evident before was lacking this time around.
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Yes, No One Will Save You proudly wears its influences on its sleeves. You’ve got ‘Signs’ in the idea of aliens invading a house. You also have ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ in the depiction of alien parasites, though how they function in this film is quite different. There is also a clearly present influence of ‘War of the Worlds’ here, in particular the Spielberg version as the scene within the spaceship felt eerily similar to that film’s ending.
There is also another influence that most critics failed to notice and that is ‘A Quiet Place’. This film is even more extreme in the fact that it has almost no spoken dialogue. Although it may sound gimmicky to a degree, I actually hugely respected that choice as it made the film authentic and even creepier. The sound design is so fantastic and the special effects of the aliens are so good that the film ultimately really worked as both a SF and horror story.
In spite of all these apparent influences, No One Will Save You still felt like its own thing due to the clever mixing of the genres as it’s rare to find a film that operates so fully in both of those areas. The home invasion elements were fantastic and the first third of the film was particularly effective in evoking fear and dread from its heroine.
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The ending is where this film will undoubtedly polarize viewers. It involved aliens probing her mind and a conclusion that was unexpected and very strange. To me it worked because the intimate backstory of the main character was well realized up to that point and quite tragic. It was a weird way to end this particular story, but I respect audacious originality instead of familiarity, so it worked for me at the end of the day.
Kaitlyn Dever is a very good actress and here she delivered a splendid performance. She got almost no dialogue, but she sold the character’s fear and anxiety competently. Although she did get a solid backstory, we do not get to see much else characterization for Brynn, but thankfully Dever made her feel real and believable, which was important in this film that was solely centered on her.
Well, there are also aliens here, and they looked very conventional for the most part. The spider form was definitely the more interesting and unique of the bunch, but otherwise their design was your classic grey alien look. In terms of SF concepts, I did like that the aliens weren’t benign and that the alien invasion here was smart and well executed. Yes, these seemingly dumb aliens could never possibly have travelled such huge distances in a spaceship, but that is a common flaw in these movies, so I forgave them for it. The action scenes worked because Dever single-handedly felt awkward and competent in handling those aliens, which was deeply relatable.
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No One Will Save You is a sci-fi horror feature that proudly wears its influences on its sleeves. You’ve got Signs in the home invasion elements, Invasion of the Body Snatchers in the parasite concepts and War of the Worlds in the final act set on a spaceship. The movie is also similar to A Quiet Place in its almost total lack of dialogue, which to me really worked as the sound is terrific and the movie was even creepier with that approach. In spite of all these familiar elements, this is still a very good genre flick that concluded with the final scene that was actually unexpected and authentic, though undeniably very strange. Kaitlyn Dever was terrific in the main role while the aliens were all very well designed and quite memorable.
My Rating – 4
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