Brinn (Kaitlyn Dever) lives far from the big city and rarely leaves her house. One night, an alien invades her home, and the girl strives to survive at any cost, while also confronting her own past, which is no less terrifying than the aggressive aliens.
Internal monologues and dialogues are ineradicable. Every minute we scold or comfort ourselves, sometimes ignoring the signals of the brain, sometimes listening to them. “No One Will Save You,” a new project from the Hulu streaming service and director and screenwriter Brian Duffield (“Spontaneous”), combines various inspirations: from Spielberg to Garland, from “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” to the recent “Vast of Night”; closer to the finale, references to the cornerstone “Twilight Zone” are noticeable. The guilt of the past here accompanies the present and dictates the future with hardly a word, which turns this mix of sci-fi, horror, thriller, and drama into one of the most inventive and poignant films of the fall.
Brinn is going to the post office and can’t choose a dress (green it is). The townspeople unanimously hate the girl — the reasons will be revealed in the epilogue — so you need to act carefully, crouching behind the wheel of the car. Along the way, Brinn visits her deceased mother’s grave, creates dollhouses to order and for herself, writes letters to her best friend on the lake shore, and dances to old records. Evening falls, twilight and flying saucers descend: it is not known why the aliens chose this particular city for the invasion, but one thing is clear — they will not leave without Brinn, no matter how carefully she locks the doors.
The hour and a half runtime does not allow the heroine or the audience to relieve tension. Enthusiast Duffield, whose “Spontaneous” similarly worked with alien practices, transferring them to teenagers, masterfully builds and meticulously details the space, stylizes it as the 1970s, and devotes almost as much time to Brinn’s psychologism. The girl, like her fortress-house, becomes a full-fledged warrior in the battle with an extraterrestrial civilization, but the main battle is fought inside. Brinn is lonely, isolated from society, traumatized, and despised for an unforgivable tragedy that occurred in childhood. They spit on her at the police station, the church closes its doors, the phone is ringing off the hook with threats — it is this kind of ostracism that seems to attract aliens, making them feel a hunting interest.
In essence, the film is a one-woman show by Kaitlyn Dever: the star of “Booksmart” and the mini-series “Unbelievable” confirms her status as one of the most talented actresses of her generation, continues to participate in original productions, presents the material in a non-standard way, and virtuously demonstrates fragility and irreconcilability. After killing the first alien with a shard to the head, Brinn, as a final girl, will have many more surprises in store for uninvited guests, the main one being her genuine identity and emotionality.
Internal monologues and dialogues are ineradicable, but sometimes silence reigns alone, and words cannot express even half of the pain that overwhelms. The only phrase Brinn utters in the film is “forgive me” — one of the main trump cards and indicators left to humanity. “No One Will Save You” agrees with its own name, but calls for taking the initiative into your own hands, grieving, healing, and making the fateful decision to move on.