No One Will Save You is an intriguing premise. A young woman isolated from society witnesses an alien invasion. She then has to fight off the invasion when the aliens possess everyone in town. Only writer/director Brian Duffield tells this story almost entirely with its visuals and little to no dialogue. It’s a bold stylistic choice. Unfortunately, by the end of the film it’s not much more than a stylistic choice for a film that doesn’t know how to end.
Seamstress Brynn, portrayed by the always reliable Kaitlyn Dever, lives isolated from the rest of her small town. She builds a small town in her home. She mourns the recent loss of her mother. Any time she goes into tow, her interactions with townspeople tends to be less than friendly. One night, she hears someone in her home. What she finds is an alien looking through her house. After a brief struggle, she kills the extraterrestrial intruder. She tries to escape but unknown to her, the invasion is already underway.
Throughout No One Will Save You, Brian Duffield demonstrates considerable skill in directing a thriller. The first hour of this movie from the initial invasion to Brynn trying to fight off aliens is intense. There’s a genuine sense of danger and isolation throughout this film. The aliens in this are of the little grey men variety, all smooth grey bodies with bulging black eyes. However, they all look different from each other. Some have more human bodies while others have elongated limbs. Because of the silent nature of the film, the audience only knows they’re invading. No reason is ever given for the invasion. It only makes the proceedings scarier. He constantly makes the viewer feel on edge as the aliens stalk Brynn not just through her house but through her town. This is a character already rejected by the society around her. When the aliens start possessing the town people, it only ramps up that feeling of isolation. All of this is aided by Kaitlyn Dever really selling the terror of dealing with the unknown. Not enough can be written on how she reacts to her character’s horrifying situation but does so silently. This is an almost entirely physical performance and the film wouldn’t work without it.
Brian Duffield also demonstrates his ability in directing a mostly silent film. The audience knows early into the film Brynn is a town pariah because none of her neighbors or the people town look or interact with her kindly. Duffield doesn’t reveal the why of this until much later in the film but it’s almost not needed. He just does such a good job setting that up throughout those early scenes. He uses visual foreshadowing to set up later developments early in the film. Take for example, Brynn sees a strange circle burned into her grass in the opening scene. She looks at it, thinks nothing of it, and moves on with her day. Later on as she tries to escape her town, there’s an incredible overhead shot as her bus goes down the road. We see every lawn in town has one of those circles indicating the aliens have successfully invaded.
It’s a shame then that film falls apart in the last thirty. After a certain point the alien attacks feel endless. The film seemingly has almost five or six points where it should end. It doesn’t. The way the film ends comes across as Duffield wrote himself into a corner with making this a silent film. What Brynn endures after a certain point isn’t a copout but it seems disconnected from rest of the film. Not every film should end badly for the characters in it. The strange ending of No One Will Save You seems almost too kind for the character and her situation. The script is at least smart enough in that Brynn doesn’t defeat the aliens.
No One Will Save You is an interesting premise for a film. Writer and director Brian Duffield creates a silent horror film for the 21st century. The structure of the film allows for an alien invasion that truly feels alien. This only makes that first hour of the film become more terrifying. Kaitlyn Dever gets to flex her physical acting skills in a film that needs a physical performance. It’s just a shame that the film’s last thirty minutes doesn’t live up to the early parts.
Cinema Dual 
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