From 20th Century Studios, No One Will Save You is an action-packed face-off between Brynn (Kaitlyn Dever) and a host of extraterrestrial beings who threaten her future while forcing her to deal with her past.
To say much more than that would risk venturing into spoiler territory, but trust us when we say this is a movie that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. A relentless sci-fi psychological thriller which never lets up, No One Will Save You is filmmaker Brian Duffield's sophomore film after he wrote, produced and directed 2020's critically acclaimed Spontaneous.
Duffield, who also penned Love and Monsters and was a producer on the hit Cocaine Bear, makes it clear he's a filmmaker to take note of with this movie and we were fortunate enough to recently speak with him about making No One Will Save You ahead of its Hulu premiere on September 22.
During our conversation, Brian talks in detail about his approach to building tension in a movie that's essentially dialogue-free, the approach he took to designing the look and sound of the movie's aliens, and what made Dever the perfect person to take centre stage in this story.
We also hear from the writer and director about whether he would be open to returning for Love and Monsters 2 after the first movie recently hit the Top 10 on Netflix.
You can check out our full No One Will Save You interview below.
I could not relax the whole time watching this movie but, as you sat down to put together what is a largely dialogue-free story, how challenging was it to create that tension?
At what stage? [Laughs] It’s different at every stage. No, in the writing of it, it was really fun because it wasn’t about the dialogue; it was about, ‘What are the obstacles that this character has?’ I didn’t realize there was no dialogue for a really long time which probably made me an idiot but I don’t outline when I write. I just kind of go where the winds take me and find where I land…which also probably makes me an idiot, but it’s just how I’ve always done it.
I was wanting to do away with the classic trope of her seeing on TV that, ‘In France today, there were sightings of saucers…’ You’re taking away those safety blankets from the character and she doesn’t know what’s going on. That, to me, is the scary part as she tries to figure out what’s happening. Part of that was taking out the electricity in her house. For us, it was a by-product of, ‘What’s the scariest we can make this role for the character’ and then also emphasizing how isolated she is. As the title says, she’s alone and there’s no one there to help her. That’s part of the nightmare of the movie.
The second half of that is in post. Our movie is a little unusual in that our aliens show up very early. They show up and they’re very in your face. It was about, ‘How do we keep making sure the threats feel exciting and we’re not taking breathers?’ We’re in hell with Kaitlyn because I really wanted it to feel like an experiential movie where you’re right there beside her holding her hand…even if you want to let go and run away.
It was about being really relentless and just going [Laughs]. I like short movies, man. I can’t with these 3-hour things.
I thought the creature design in this movie was incredible but was even more fascinated by the sound design and their language; what was the process of creating that like?
As soon as I started writing, I wanted to use the greys because I love that design. As an audience member, I felt underfed. I would joke that we get so many Draculas a year, but I want a grey. I feel like the alien design had moved so far away from that and I was like, ‘I miss it.’ That was part of the reason I made the movie to feed my desire. What was so great about it was, okay, we had that archetype design, but how do we build off it? I knew early on that I wanted to convey that these guys are smart. You can imagine they were smart enough to get here but as soon as you meet them, you definitely know they’re smarter than Kaitlyn or any human. That is the challenge. They’re physically very capable too, but part of the problem is they’re very smart. It doesn’t take them long to do a lot of damage.
Part of that was the language and it was what I was excited about. That design has never really had a lot of speech in past iterations as few as there were, so getting to work with our amazing sound guys, like Chris Terhune, and really come up with the language where a lot of the information Kaitlyn is getting is from that. It’s repeated phrases and music and they came up with so many cool and unique ideas. It really is such a knockout bit of work from them and instead of Kaitlyn getting news feeds of what’s going on, the aliens are openly telling her what they’re doing…she just can’t understand it! She does progressively pick up familiar motifs so that was a really exciting idea that, by the end of the movie, you don’t know exactly what they’re saying, but you know they’re saying something specific. That was really exciting. They’re not just screeching, there’s real intelligence there.
Love and Monsters blew up when it hit Netflix; do you think the door might be open to returning to that world for a sequel?
Oh, cool. I would be very excited to work with Dylan O’Brien. I know him and never got a chance to meet Jessica [Henwick]. I would be really excited to get to do something with those guys, yeah.
I’ve admired Kaitlyn Dever’s work for a long time. What made her the right choice for this role and how did you pitch the movie to her given the lack of dialogue and the fact you really put her through the wringer?
[Laughs] We did! I think she was so excited. I remember the first time I met her. It was January 6 [Laughs]. That’s always a very easy day to remember because of everything happening. I hung up, turned on the TV and was like, ‘Oh, shit.’ She was so excited and partially because…the dialogue thing, I don’t think that was a thing for her at all. It was a really complex and complicated character she gravitated towards in that respect, but then also, it was so physical. I think that, for her, was really exciting. She hadn’t done the Marvel or Star Wars action movie. That was really important to me too. I didn’t want someone you’d seen kick ass. It’s tough to buy a Charlize as a defenceless person now you’re like, ‘She’s Furiosa. She could snap me in half.’
Having someone like Kaitlyn where you’ve seen her in Justified, Booksmart, Unbelievable, or Dopesick, but not this world. There’s nothing in your brain to latch on to her being successful in a situation where she could be attacked and I think that makes it so much more nerve-wracking for the audience. You can’t point to the big Endgame fight with Kaitlyn in it and that was so exciting. For her, it was a really physical challenge and a character she really loved and gravitated towards, but she also had to run every day and was throwing herself all over the place on wires doing everything. I think she was just so tickled to be doing something that was so physical and it was great. She’s the best.
No One Will Save You begins streaming on Hulu on September 22 Ahead of Huluween Season.