With so many alien movies out there, it’s hard to stand out. That’s especially true when you take into consideration that it feels like these movies are just repeating themselves over and over. Either the aliens come to invade us and we fight back or there are some body snatchers going on. There’s nothing new. Then Hulu’s No One Will Save You came around and I was pleasantly surprised to watch something that honored previous alien movies but stood apart from the crowd and gave us something fresh.
In No One Will Save You, Kaitlyn Dever stars as Brynn. She’s a young woman who is kind of the pariah of the small town that she lives in. Despite that, she is creative and wants to connect with those around her. But her past holds her at a standstill in various ways, the most notable being that she doesn’t speak. She’s capable of speaking. But she chooses not to the entirety of the movie. And that choice alone shifts the movie into something that I have rarely seen in the horror genre in itself. Because taking away a character’s voice does not mean that they don’t communicate in other ways. They do. It just means that the cast, director, and writing have to express things in a different way.
Through Brynn, we are able to understand how grief and isolation can change someone. We also understand the absolute sheer terror of going to bed one night without a care in the world to only wake up to an alien in your house. What follows afterward is even crazier because she ends up killing one of the aliens and going on this final girl kind of adventure similar to the great Ellen Ripley from Alien. The difference between Ellen and Brynn’s stories is that Brynn’s feels more relatable. Any of us could be in that house, just going to bed, and then boom. Aliens. And that relatability makes this movie even scarier.
Major kudos also have to go to the design department when it comes to developing the aliens for No One Will Save You. It definitely has similarities with what we’re used to when we talk about aliens. Big heads, bug eyes, and this drop kind of head shape. But those feet? Those feet were disgusting and I appreciate the different design. Another disgusting fact was that it was the traditional alien in combination with a parasite that took over people’s bodies. That wiggling thing that came out of the alien’s mouth was simple and so terrifying that I had to look away. And it makes me love the movie even more because I feel like sometimes movies go over the top with their design. We don’t need over-the-top. Keep it simple, people.
The ending of No One Will Save You, like the rest of this movie, surprisingly works. The aliens, after seeing her fight with everything that she has, give her grace. They guide her through healing, know that she only wants to feel included, and let her live her life among them. They know that she’s not going to cause any problems. And honestly, I think they empathize with her a little and are impressed by her resilience. They too want to belong, leaving us with a HEA for the aliens and Brynn. Unfortunately, not so much of a happy ending for the rest of the humans though. Oh well.
No One Will Save You is now available on Hulu.
