No One Will Save You (2023)
Directed by: Brian Duffield
Premise: A woman (Kaitlyn Dever) living alone in a rural house has her home invaded by unfriendly extraterrestrials.
What Works: No One Will Save You is a showcase for Kaitlyn Dever’s performance in the lead role. The whole film plays out from her perspective and Dever has almost no dialogue. She’s required to spend nearly the entire movie in a state of agitation and Dever keeps the energy up throughout. Dever’s very physical and expressive performance suits the filmmaker’s approach. No One Will Save You is a very good example of visual storytelling. Because there is little dialogue everything is conveyed visually and the filmmakers inform us about a lot while telling us very little. Much of the movie takes place in and around the house of Dever’s character and space is used well. The filmmakers establish the layout of the house early on, giving the viewer a sense of spatial relationships when Dever’s character runs around in the dark. The framing and camera movement are especially impressive in the way that they create tension and excitement.
What Doesn’t: No One Will Save You’s stripped down quality is both one of its assets and one of its weaknesses. The immediacy of the home invasion and the kineticism of the chase keeps the film nimble but it doesn’t allow for much depth. The scope of the movie expands for a while as Dever’s character ventures outside of her home and into town. The filmmakers work in some backstory and we find the protagonist is so isolated because of a past tragedy. The backstory comes across as an aside. This woman’s struggle with alien invaders doesn’t really resolve that inner conflict. That’s the larger flaw of No One Will Save You. Very little is revealed or affirmed by this story.
Disc extras: Available on Hulu.
Bottom Line: No One Will Save You succeeds as a sci-fi home invasion story and the stalking and survival scenes are done quite well. It has little else going on and the attempts to deepen the character come across as filler instead of substance.
Episode: #970 (October 22, 2023)