No One Will Save You A Story of Regret, Guilt, Forgiving Oneself

The trailer to Brian Duffield’s (2023) No One Will Save You caught my attention earlier this month. A young women lives in a rural town and keeps to herself and as she’s going on about her life one night her house suddenly gets invaded by aliens. I know it’s a typical genre story, but it was a scene in the trailer when Brynn played by Kaitlyn Dever is inside the house and hears the noise outside on top of her roof of someone or something running. I wrote a script of an Alien encounter similar which I was really passionate about. Although I never did it because of legal reasons as it involves people in real life and I’m not at that point yet where I can make deals. It was something I worked on for so long and later even got friends involved who got interested in it. We still talk about it from time to time. But I have to move on from that.

I put this on and as soon it started I notice I wasn't much a big fan of the cinematography. It looks like the generic cinematography in films. It’s not bad, but there’s something about this kind of look that already tells me what kind of film I’m going to see. It’s not gonna be either some classic, terrible or it’s going to be a just alright film. As more time went on I can say there was some creative things with the cinematography so it kind of grew on me as I continued watching.

Another thing I wasn’t much fond of was the score. It does have few I enjoy towards the end, but after what I said of the cinematography and the score, I was already feeling like I was going to turn this off soon. This doesn’t make Joseph Tranpanese a terrible composer though. He has a lot of other work out there to prove me and others wrong. This just wasn’t my taste.

Watching the movie I noticed Brynn would never speak. I starting asking myself if she ever is and then I thought maybe she’s a mute. But I started to pick up on things and it was leaving me guessing. Later you see her writing a letter to someone for herself telling that person she saw her parents. So I started to pick up some pieces of what the backstory might be.

After her day out and heading back home for the night, the film gets right into it and the visitors from another world come. The film felt to me like a mix of M. Night Shymalan’s (2002) Signs and Dan Trachtenberg’s (2016) 10 Clovefield Lane. Although not as good. The Aliens aren’t scary and they become less terrifying because we can see them for a long period of time. When I saw the first Alien I was like "Is Seth Rogen’s Paul around here too?" They look like family. I mentioned in my Godzilla Minus One piece how I admire Garett Edward’s (2014) Godzilla for doing the whole less is more. How when we see the monster, the creature, aliens, the killer for a long time we grow accustom to it where it doesn’t become as scary anymore like it would if we would just get a glimpse time from time. The CGI aliens don’t look like anything new. They look like they came from the History Channel. They also act like humans to me, you can tell when they are angry and curious just like any of us would be, so I never found anything really strange about them.

As the story progresses there are some surprises that keep you glued. I can say I’m glad I didn’t turn it off earlier cause it does get better. Sometimes you feel this at the start of the movie where you’re like be patient give it a chance, it might get better or it becomes, I gave it a chance and it did not get better. In this it would be the first one. After something shocking that Brynn does, she runs to her friend Maudes parents. Keep in mind Brynn still hasn’t talked at all for most of the film. The scene when she’s outside the police department where Maude’s dad works just cuts to her inside and skips her telling them what happened and asking for help. Their response is not what I thought it would be and I ended up sympathizing for her and getting interested in what might have happen. She is all alone in this and has been alone since the start. She then comes across a grave and we find out Maude passed away. As Brynn realizes that people are being controlled by the aliens which reminded me of the film (1956) Invasion of the Body Snatchers, even though I haven’t seen it, I’m prettying sure that’s the premise of the story. She ends up having to fight off two or three different aliens. Eventually one ends up controlling her body and she goes into some trance. This is where I started to see what the film was about. Brynn’s home isn’t damaged anymore, it’s fixed up and Maude comes down to see her. They’re the same age now, even though Maude’s headstone stated she only lived 12 years. People don’t talk to Brynn or smile at her in her town, she hides from Maude's parents, she writes letters to Maude. When Maude comes down and sees her she finally speaks and the words that come out of her mouth break my heart. I finally said Guilt. This is about Regret and Guilt. Brynn is isolated and she has isolated herself too because she feels guilty. If you finish the film you will understand why. She then wakes up from this and is back to the real problem. There is this scene with Brynn and an alien Brynn double that I felt could say a lot visually. Many can have their own take on this, but to me one of the things that came to my mind was this is what Brynn wanted but couldn’t do, but then the tables are turn and it is still sad to see for some reason. Is Brynn getting rid of the old her? Is Brynn finally trying to be there for herself and tell herself that it’s okay and that she has to forgive herself? There’s just so much one could interpret with the second half of this film. I admire when a director/writer takes a typical genre but tells something much more behind it with its characters and story.

I don’t consider No One Will Save You a masterpiece but if people are gonna keep doing this then they have to bring something fresh or at least give it a meaning of a feeling we have in life like Guilt and having to learn to let go and forgive yourself. It’s an entertaining film worth watching.