31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN: NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU

ALIEN ABDUCTION FILM THAT HELD MY INTEREST

This is honestly a hard sub-genre to make a modern horror film with and have it be compelling and scary to its viewers. I think in its own way it accomplished both of these things. I loved the alien design. The primary alien is scary, the creature of our nightmares that we are afraid of that would come down and take us away in the middle of the night. An exact scene prays on that fear, and it’s extremely effective in how it uses the room and sound design to really make for a scary and tense scene. Kaitlyn Dever is awesome as Brynn. She specifically carries the movie due to the limited cast and extremely limited dialogue. It only has 5 words spoken in the whole movie. To be able to convey such an intriguing alien abduction movie with basically no words is quite impressive

THE PREMISE GOES BEYOND THE OBVIOUS

Brynn is very content being an outcast after how society and her community has treated her, due to the accident that happened when she was a kid. She was content living this way because she never truly forgave herself. So while being in pure isolation, being visited by someone from another world peaks her interest to the highest level. As part of the aliens coming to abduct people, they use a parasite to show them the illusion of a great life. A life she would not be barred by this accident and be reunited with her mother. She would rather live that reality with the aliens than stay with the world that curses her. He aliens let her live in their bliss independently due to her trauma. Which is interesting since you’d imagine plenty of people they tried to make part of the hive have some serious trauma as well. They have realized with her they don’t need to control her for her to live amongst them willingly. I think it’s a really unique way to adapt an alien abduction and the creature design and vision sequences with the aliens was really well done.

THE SCARES THAT ELEVATED THE FILM

The aliens are SCARY. The scout alien is tall and slender and the thing of your nightmares. His original entrance into the film and room is so nerve-wracking I was immediately locked in. The alien creeping around the kitchen while she is also in there in such a small space is wild and has you trying to guess how she could possibly get out of that while being terrified of the alien stalking around the dark. Her being chased by her clone and the lanky alien in the woods also had me on the edge of my seat hoping she would get away. This movie really relies on the limited jumpscares but creative and creepy alien designs. I applaud the film being rooted in that and a complex story rather than trying to catch us off guard with loud noises and jumpscares. This is one I think gets better with each watch because you understand the relationship that builds between her and the aliens going from scary beings coming to abduct her to a state of acceptance based on her life circumstances.

C.A. ROETHLE