It’s somewhat surprising that more filmmakers haven’t attempted to blur the lines between a home invasion and an alien invasion like someone grafted together the most alarming parts of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and The Strangers – however, writer director Brian Duffield has taken the initiative and dived in feet first with tense, sci-fi thriller, No One Will Save You.
As the writer of Love & Monsters and the animated Netflix Kong show, Skull Island, Duffield has been scratching something of a monster sized itch as of late and with his follow up to the splat happy Spontaneous, he’s decided to curb the humerous aspects of his work to deliver a sparse, almost minimalist adventure that surely would have been perfect material for yet another Cloverfield entry. However, while the ground these aliens have touched down upon is obviously fertile for some sweaty, cat and mouse shenanigans, it’s also hardly the most original; can the director manage to beam up something new that other women in peril movies haven’t already probed?
Brynn Adams is a woman who seems to be suffering from a case of extreme arrested development since her mother died and due to some unknown event from her past, the rest of the small, all-American burg in which she lives openly shun her whenever she builds up the courage to step outside. Aside from the loneliness, howeve, Brynn seems happy enough cut off from everybody else as she busied herself keeping her family home pristine, teaching herself to dance and tending to a model village that make the one in Beetlejuice look like a Duplo set, but her eccentric, 50s-style existence looks like it’s going to be rudely interrupted thanks to an unwelcome caller.
After being woken by strange noises one night, Brynn spots an intruder trying to gain entrance to her home, but this isn’t some random town person hoping to torment her for her unknown crime or a particularly clumsy thief, no, this intruder is tall, bald, naked and has come from the stars in order to enact some unfathomable purpose on earth. Before you know it, Brynn has fought back against her grey skinned visitor and after the sun has risen, she heads into town to find help – however not only does her poor standing in the town make her come up short, but her late night “guest” was only a fraction of what these otherworldly creeps have in store for us.
Some townsfolk seemingly have been possessed and attack people while their throats ripple with some icky parasite and so Brynn has to fight her way back home in order to take further shelter. What tdo these extraterrestrial assholes want and why are they so fascinated with Brynn as her survival instincts keep her barely one step ahead of them? It seems that along with body snatching, the aliens can worm their way into your mind too and whatever lurks in Brynn’s mysterious past seems to be holding their rapt attention.
While I mentioned earlier that the whole alien/home invasion thing has been strangely untapped, that doesn’t mean that movies haven’t utilized the concept for individual set pieces and the more cynical among you may suggest that No One Will Save You is just the basement scene from Steven Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds but stretched to feature length. While I would sort of agree with that description (while then countering that the scene in question itself was ripped off from the kitchen scene in Jurassic Park), it’s also tough to ignore the DNA of other, recognizable sci-fi fare such as A Quiet Place and 10 Cloverfield Road floating within its genetic make up.
However, despite the potential for over familiarity, Duffield has a secret weapon or two up his sleeve that makes sure that No One Will Save You manages to stand apart and the first one is the subtly shifting nature of the alien threat. Giving them a classic “grey man” look and having them communicate via throaty warbling, the director loads his E.T.s with an invasion method that’s so suitably alien, at times it’s not entirely clear what it is they’re trying to do. While this would be an issue in a movie like, say, Independence Day, the fact that the aliens plans are so random makes matters all the more unpredictable. One minute they’re sneaking through a dark house, creeping along on disturbingly prehencile toes like a mutant ballerina, the next they’re hitting you with telekinetic force pushes or cramming weird, spiney, sea urchin thingies into people’s mouths to either control them or read their innermost thoughts and even though it may cause the occasional lapse in logic, it is extremely effective at keeping you on edge and of guard. Yes, the designs of some of the three different alien chastes feel very reminiscent (one in particular looks like the beastie from Cloverfield fucked Paul the alien from Paul), but it’s been a while since someone stuck to the classic grey look of legend.
The other thing that makes the movie excell is the central (or some might say, solitary) character of Brynn who proves to be a refreshingly off beat heroine for this kind of film. Due to a past trauma whose details gradually unfurl as the film continues, our closed off lead ultimately proves to be as difficult to pin down as the alien’s M.O. as the movie opens as she goes about her eccentric day. Writing daily letters to a mystery friend named Maude and tempering her anxiety with childlike enthusiasm, she’s a fascinating study even before she has to fight for her life against creepers from space and Kaitlyn (Booksmart, Unjustified) Dever does a magnificent – almost wordless – job at holding the screen with little more than her facial expressions and presence to keep things moving.
Also stepping up is Duffield, making sure that the near-constant action and cat and mouse stuff remains crystal clear to follow even if the alien’s motives prove to be cloudier than an unlearned swimming pool. In fact, some may be a tad bamboozled by impressively ambiguous ending that could quite easily be classed as darkly happy or amusingly tragic depending on what angle you come at it from.
Along with Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey, streaming service Hulu seem to be cornering the market in the women versus alien movies in a way that would make Ellen Ripley proud and it really does prove that not all direct to streaming movies are a forgettable as the ones that usually pop up on the likes of Netflix.
Tense, thoughtful and brief, No One Will Save You turns on its tractor beam to get you right on the edge of that seat…
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