The new Hulu original horror movie No One Will Save You has an interesting gimmick and a hell of a central performance from star Kaitlyn Dever, but suffers from being derivative of… well, of a lot of different things. It also falls apart at the end badly enough to leave you questioning whether the time spent watching it is really worth the investment.

Having said that, I feel like I may have already given a full review of the movie in just two sentences. Beyond that, I’m not sure I have a whole lot more to say. I suppose that’s fitting, as none of the characters speak much either.

Title:	No One Will Save You
Year of Release:	2023
Director:	Brian Duffield
Watched On:	Hulu

Depending on your viewing habits, Dever may be best known for the teen comedy Booksmart, her supporting roles in movies like The Spectacular Now and Dear Evan Hansen, or a long-running stint on the Tim Allen sitcom Last Man Standing. Personally, she most stands out to me for her recurring part as a teenage drug kingpin on FX’s Justified. Point being, the versatile actress has a solid foundation in both comedy and drama. She carries the entirety of No One Will Save You on her shoulders, as not just the lead but the only (living) character identified by name. Dever is front and center in every scene, if not almost every shot in the film.

Her character, Brynn, lives in an isolated house on the outskirts of a small town, and spends most of her time alone at home. Ostracized from her community due to a tragedy in her childhood that she was admittedly responsible for, Brynn has no friends and no family to support her. Even so many years later, she’s still racked with guilt over what she did, and suffers anxiety issues at the prospect of seeing or interacting with other people. What this all means, unfortunately, is that she has nobody on her side when aliens arrive to break into her home and take over the town – if not the whole world. (We only get small hints as to the scope of events.)

From that point (which happens fairly early), No One Will Save You becomes a mash-up of the home intruder and alien invasion genres. Brynn hides in her house and defends herself as best she can, while big-eyed, naked gray aliens torment her and either kidnap or take over the bodies of everyone in the vicinity. Her attempts to flee the town are stymied, and the more she fights back, the more nasty monsters come to find her.

In other words, the movie has a lot of recognizable parts from Close Encounters and Signs and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, plus many other familiar sources – not to mention the ones that don’t have aliens. Countless scenes are framed with Brynn crouching down around a corner or behind some piece of furniture to hide from a menacing creature out of focus in the background. The aliens have telekinetic and other magical powers, and exactly why they care so much about this one girl is never clear. Frankly, they ought to just level her house and move on, for all the nuisance she must be to them.

All of these suspense tropes are efficiently staged and directed, if lacking in originality. Where the movie tries to set itself apart is its nearly total lack of dialogue, either from Brynn or anyone else. Only five words are spoken in the entire film, and all more than an hour into the runtime. The rest of the time, Dever must convey her terror and trauma without words, and the director has to tell the story without the crutch of spoken exposition.

Even on the front, however, the picture is basically aping the blockbuster A Quiet Place and its sequel, yet does so without the narrative excuse to explain why nobody ever talks. Unlike that franchise, the monsters here aren’t blind and don’t hunt by sound. Yes, Brynn keeps quiet trying not to draw attention, but you’d expect her to scream or swear or beg for her life every once in a while. The movie really strains to keep the gimmick going in the scenes between the alien attacks, especially when she runs to town looking for help.

As I said, Dever is terrific. The actress gives her all in this performance and almost makes it work, but is ultimately let down by the material, which is too imitative and insubstantial to justify even the relatively short 93-minute length. A last-minute twist also just muddles the plot and doesn’t work at all.

Video Streaming

No One Will Save You streams on Hulu in 4K HDR. The most enthusiasm I can muster is to say that it looks acceptable. The 2.39:1 image is reasonably sharp, but hardly notable. Daytime scenes have deep, even oversaturated colors, but most of the movie takes place at night and is much drabber and practically colorless. Although most of the screencaps I grabbed for this review look overly dim on my web browser, shadow detail was actually quite adequate when watching on my home theater screen. However, the photography and grading have no sense of HDR that I could discern.

The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack is set for a frustratingly low volume and required boosting much higher than I usually watch. With that done, a movie with no dialogue of course relies heavily upon its sound design to tell the story. The mix here is filled with many interesting sound effects and very strategic use of the surround channels to create an immersive environment. To that end, the lack of Atmos support feels like a missed opportunity, especially when the flying saucers hover overhead.

Bass activity hits hard on occasion, with some deep low-end jolts. Yet a big car explosion is inexplicably weak.