I chose this movie as a direct response to yesterday’s absolute flop. Skinamarink tried to eschew standard pacing and dialogue with an atmospheric creepy vibe that absolutely did not work for me. No One Will Save You is also doing something different with having an entire movie that only really has two lines of dialogue spoken in the entire thing. The difference between them is that this movie has tension, drama, and a main character you give a shit about.

Our story revolves around Brynn, a young women that has a troubled past and even more troubled relationship with the small town she lives in. She is isolated and ostracized from the community and then things get much worse when she has to defend herself and her home from alien invaders. What could have easily been an interesting concept for a 15 minute short film blossoms into a full hour and half of not only intense action and fear but a gripping story about trauma and coming to terms with our own grief.

I have to immediately applaud the main actress, Kaitlyn Dever, on a spectacular job delivering a performance that grips you without uttering more than handful of words. Without being able to rely on dialogue or interplay with other actors, Dever manages to convey so much. Like most good horror movies, the monster is a stand-in for other things and the aliens here can be seen as a stand-in for the guilt and inability to let go that Brynn has. She attempts to act happy and pretend like everything is ok but that trauma invades every aspect of her life until she is ultimately forced to confront it and reconcile with it.

That isn’t to say that the movie is an emotional slog of silent contemplation. There is about 10 minutes of establishing the character, some quick background information given through visual clues, and then we are off to the races with some very freaky takes on the classic grey aliens. While the CG isn’t good enough to make the aliens seem as real as practical effects might have, they do allow for them to move and speak in ways that would be impossible with practical alone. The invaders range from terrifyingly sinister, to monstrous, to almost comical but they all are uncanny and great to watch on screen.

I am so glad I had this as a palate cleanser from yesterday’s nonsense. Both took what probably could have been nothing more than a neat idea for a short film and turned it into a full movie. No One Will Save You is the only one that managed to justify its runtime, though.

Score: 4.5 out of 5