Solid tension but cheap effects in ‘No One Will Save You’

With far less dialogue than even “A Quiet Place,” the sci-fi thriller, “No One Will Save You,” relies on classic horror techniques and an emotive turn from star Kaitlyn Dever to make the most of its occasionally silly alien invasion plot.

Dever (“Booksmart,” “Last Man Standing”) plays Brynn, a lonely, small-town seamstress living alone in her isolated family home. She dances joyfully around her house and even devotes time to smiling at herself in the mirror. But on the rare occasion she visits town for the occasional errand, her neighbors shun her. One lady even spits on her face at the mere sight of her. Clearly, Brynn and the town have a history.

Mere minutes into the film, Brynn gets an extraterrestrial visitor one night. The alien stalks her around the creaky old house, using telekinesis to mess with the lights, open doors and cupboards and make generally terrifying noises. The scene is a masterclass in home invasion-style thrills… until the movie reveals a full, clear shot of the otherworldly aggressor.

The aliens in “No One Will Save You” look very much like the bald, big-eyed, classic aliens of Roswell/alien autopsy fame. Unfortunately, as CGI renderings, they also look unthreatening and, well, sometimes goofy, especially when they crawl around in starts-and-stops like a Ray Harryhousen creation. It could very well be an intentional homage, but it cripples the movie’s scare appeal.

Thankfully, Dever holds the screen throughout, basically without ever saying a word, even when the aliens start behaving in ways that other alien races might consider strange. People in the town seem to be taken over by little bug versions of the aliens, and the E.T.s controlling the spaceships in the sky absolutely LOVE to use their tractor beams. There’s never been as many active tractor beams in a sci-fi movie as there are in “No One Will Save You.” Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Depends on your opinion of tractor beams.

The dark secret from Brynn’s past becomes a major plot point in the third act (of course), and while it’s telegraphed too much and too early in the movie, Dever sells the trauma effectively, and the movie takes a somewhat daring approach in how it integrates that trauma into the alien invasion plot. Silly as it is, the ending deserves recognition for taking such a unique route.

“No One Will Save You” is written and directed by Brian Duffield, and despite the questionable effects, the filmmaker packs the story with action despite a modest budget. As a screenwriter, Duffield has earned fans in genre pictures like “Love and Monsters” and “Underwater.” His first directorial effort was 2020’s, “Spontaneous,” a boldly effective dark comedy that centered on high school kids who spontaneously exploded without explanation. That movie got buried in the pandemic, though its subject matter spoke to that moment in time more than anybody could have realized while making it.

“No One Will Save You” has a more surface level approach compared to “Spontaneous,” though Duffield shows further promise behind the camera. Another $10 million pumped into the CGI budget might’ve led 20th Century Studios to release the film in theaters rather than exclusively on Hulu. At least it’s fresher than the wrinkly faces populating the megaplex in “The Expend4bles.”

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Tyler Wilson can be reached at [email protected].