Sound direction in a film is no doubt an integral aspect of any good piece of media, yet alone, it generally isn’t enough to be a point I harp on when looking at something critically. No One Will Save You is the exception to that rule, as Brian Duffield’s latest alien feature, during most of its 90-minute runtime, seldom features characters that speak, let alone string together sentences.
Audiences are introduced to a young woman named Brynn (Kaitlyn Dever) who lives alone in a big old-fashioned house on a secluded property in a non-descriptive American town. The location feels right at home with other iconic sci-fi movie settings, such as Signs and Interstellar, making for the ideal setup for an alien home invasion feature.
Brynn is a bit of a social pariah, which results in her reclusive loner-lifestyle while giving Writer and Director Brian Duffield the means to craft a story that doesn’t rely on dialogue to be still effective at conveying a sense of dread and despair as Brynn inevitably runs into all manners of personal space invaders as No One Will Save You plays out.
As the name may suggest, No One Will Save You portrays Brynn as someone strangely disliked, which ultimately feels like a ploy to play with the feelings associated with alienation while showcasing literal otherworldly beings invading her small town, which, to me, came off as a little corny. Still, it’s a good message for a movie aimed at a younger audience.
The aliens themselves in No One Will Save You are your typical Greys, long and slender bi-pedal creatures with almond-shaped eyes, boney-claw-like fingers, and legs that look more like hands, which add a bit of spice to the otherwise bog-standard Grey template. Later on in the film, No One Will Save You plays with this design more and offers a few more unique designs that help keep things fresh and unpredictable while never straying too far from the established aesthetic.
“…No One Will Save You is an interesting watch that fans of sci-fi horror will enjoy…”
In terms of the CGI, however, No One Will Save You is a bit of a mixed bag, with most creatures looking pretty good from a distance but falling apart in some of the more intimate angles, which ultimately robs the film of its already, light-on-terror atmosphere. Still, for a movie with a PG-13 rating, No One Will Save You does an excellent job of creating tension and a feeling of dread. This is mostly done through excellent sound design, a quality score and, of course, Dever’s portrayal of Brynn, who, despite not having any lines of dialogue, sells the character thanks to her physical and expressive choreography set against the movie’s otherworldly set pieces.
In other words, if I had to sum up No One Will Save You in two words, I’d describe it as Horror ASMR. From the guttural animal-like growls of the aliens to the very real emotions displayed by Brynn, the film does a standout job of delivering a story that exemplifies the notion of Show, not Tell.
Unfortunately, I did find No One Will Save You to be a bit longer than it needed to be, particularly during the latter half of the film, where I found the movie just haphazardly throwing around mini set pieces or vignettes to move things along without any real progress to the overall story. Even worse is No One Will Save You‘s final message, which, although powerful, felt unearned and random and just thrown in there to tick a box and make the movie feel more profound than it was.
Even still, No One Will Save You is an interesting watch that fans of sci-fi horror will enjoy, made accessible for a wider audience than normal thanks to its PG-13 rating, which keeps things relatively clean throughout but still engaging enough not to bore older audiences.
