Hooptober 10.0 – No One Will Save You (2023)

Being Film #8 for Hooptober 2023

This wasn’t part of the plan. The plan was to stick to the films I needed to get through Hooptober in one piece. But if a high level concept was going to grab me and not let go, it’s the one for No One Will Save You: what if a home invasion but aliens? I doubt that’s a spoiler since the marketing highlights it prominently, but all the same: I needed to see it ASAP. My only regret is that this wasn’t released in a theater because writer/director Brian Duffield has made a thrilling, gasp and laugh and alien invasion film that bridges modern sensibilities with classic 50s tropes and makes us give a shit about the character arc of its lead, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

THE QUICK SUMMARY: Brynn lives alone on the outskirts of a small town. It would be picaresque, except that everyone seems to hate her. One night alone in her big, empty house she hears a noise outside. Raccoons? Nope. She notices her front door open, and someone walking around her house. Oh, did I say someone? I meant something, because ALIENS, baby! Soon Brynn is fighting for her survival as the town (and seemingly the world) is invaded by flying saucers and grey men of all sizes. Utterly alone Brynn has to not only face the sins of her past but the fact that NO ONE WILL SAVE HER. Ha!

I’m going to talk very little about the plot of No One Will Save You, because this is a movie best experienced cold. Duffield does a fantastic job taking a massive sci-fi concept and using it as a backdrop for a very small, personal story without sacrificing any of the thrills, chills and set pieces you want from something like this. And the effects are fantastic, although they take a moment to get used to, particularly how the aliens move. He’s using very classic designs, but in ways we haven’t seen before, and it’s refreshing NOT to have aliens that looks like bugs or animals like almost every single alien film has for the last 10 years (sorry A Quiet Place).

There’s another key thing about the film as a whole that I’m not going to spoil except to say that it wouldn’t have worked if you didn’t have the right lead for this. Enter Kaitlyn Dever, who has never NOT been fantastic in everything she’s in. No One Will Save You is essentially a one-person show, and she not only rises (quite literally in a few cases) to the challenge, but completely surprises in everything she has to tackle to make the other trick of the film work. And it does, like gangbusters.

I want to say more, but even more I really want people to seek this out. It’s currently on Hulu, and worth a trial subscription if you don’t alley have one. It’s worth way more than that – if nothing else I want to see the look of people’s faces at the ending, which is simultaneously cathartic and wicked and hilarious. No One Will Save You was a terrific fun film, and I can’t wait to watch it again.