Writer/director Brian Duffield delivers a lot to unpack thematically with his alien thriller No One Will Save You, which is delivered virtually silently with almost no dialogue at all. With obvious nods to films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Invasion of the Body Snatcher, the film is a tense, white-knuckle thriller that delivers scares and lots to think about.

Brynn (Kaitlyn Dever who gives a fantastic performance) lives and works alone, cut off from the community by events from her past, which she will have to confront over the course of the film as she deals with the horror of what is happening to her in the here and now, and the trauma of her youth.

Strange events start to happen around Brynn’s home and one night she is awoken by someone in the house with her. She is absolutely shocked to discover that it’s not a someone but a something and so begins a series of terrifying escapades that illustrate her separate existence from the community, and a physical, mental and emotional trial that could change everything.

One of my favourite directors Guillermo del Toro has mentioned that the film modernizes some familiar Catholic tropes of salvation through suffering, but as the film comes to its close there is something to suggest salvation, but also the idea of the loss of individuality and falling under control by living under a delusion.

I love the fact that there is almost no dialogue in the hour-and-a-half film, all of Dever’s performance has to come from her physicality and reactions. Brushing up against UFO reports and alien abduction themes, the special effects are very solid as well, taking a very recognizable grey alien image and augmenting it and changing it for the story needs, and the UFOs are a sharp design as well.

And I have questions about the aliens: are they subjugating the population? are they using humanity for some unknown purpose? are they colonising? I love that the film can be explored and examined from a number of angles.

The film deals quickly with the ‘why doesn’t Brynn do this or that’ and does it all without dialogue. It’s a really clever concept, and executed very well. This is a great film to watch with the lights out, and not one that you can wander away from, you have to pay attention at all times, and enjoy the atmosphere the film creates, and the Dever’s performance.

Sharp, clever and spooky. I dug this one.