If anyone is the authority on what is frightening, it is the resident master of horror literature, Stephen King. Since the early ‘70s, the author has been pumping out tales of the macabre with no end in sight.
In a surprise to no one, he is at it again with a movie recommendation just in time for the Halloween season. The author of classics such as The Stand and It, King is an avid consumer of his bread and butter genre. When he isn’t penning two or three bone-chilling books a year, he is sharing what he is watching with the masses. No word on how he fits it all in a day, but he has shared his most recent recommendation for a truly strange movie to add to your horror list.
Released quietly on Hulu, dark horse No One Will Save You could turn into something of a cult classic, and King seems to agree. Starring rising star Kaitlyn Dever, the film clocks in just over 90 minutes with barely any dialogue. And this is the strength of the film. Movies are a visual medium, and everything is laid out perfectly for the audience. Dever’s character Brynn is reclusive, though not by design. After a childhood incident, Brynn killed her best friend, Maude, causing the town to shun her. She has never had a second chance and spends her days sewing dresses and recreating a miniature version of the town in her house.
This all changes after a chance encounter with an alien. No One Will Save You turns the home invasion genre on its head with the character of Brynn as she gives the aliens that come into her home a run for their money. King fully endorses this film, and for good reason.
Though King’s endorsements don’t always line up with reality, this would be an outlier. His comparison to The Twilight Zone is an apt one. The episode in question, titled The Invaders” refers to a last-minute twist. It sees an old woman living in a remote cabin get accosted by tiny assailants. At the end of the episode, viewers learn that the woman was not of Earth, but some sort of alien giant, while the alleged invaders were actually the U.S. Air Force who had landed on an alien planet. Twist! No One Will Save You has a twist in perspective as well, however, stop here if you want to avoid spoiling it for yourself.
After an hour and a half of Brynn attempting to avoid the aliens, they abduct her onto a spacecraft. The aliens have her relive her trauma, where we learn the events that turned everyone against her. She never earned redemption for killing her friend and, in turn, was never able to forgive herself.
The aliens want to give her a second chance that the townspeople never let her have. The last shot of the movie shows Brynn dancing with the people of the town, who are being controlled by the aliens. Brynn, for the first time since the incident, is happy. In a “good for her” moment present in horror films such as Midsommar and The Witch, you have to admit that King got this recommendation right.