I really enjoy taut and tense thrillers. I’ve long loved quality science-fiction. I’m always up for a good horror movie. These three genres (and more) come together in “No One Will Save You”, a terrific new Hulu Original film from writer-director Brian Duffield. This mesmerizing mash-up surprises at every turn, defying predictability and keeping us guessing all the way through to its final shot. What an unexpected treat.

Duffield deserves a ton of credit for shrewdly using everything at his disposal to create, develop, and sustain a gripping and suspense-filled genre experience. His film is artfully scripted, visually striking, and anchored by an emotionally rich and mostly wordless performance by a truly sublime Kaitlyn Dever.

Dever plays Brynn Adams, a quiet and reclusive young woman living alone in her family’s homeplace in the country. She’s somewhat of a pariah in her nearby community. So much so that her anxiety kicks in whenever she’s around the cold and leering locals. What’s going on? Why the unfriendly reception? Why has she been ostracized? This is the first of a handful of mysteries that Duffield patiently unfold over the course of his film’s lean 93 minutes.

At home, Brynn finds comfort in being alone. She spends time working on a model replica of the town – something she and her late mother once had fun doing together. She also writes letters to her best friend Maude who we learn died ten years earlier. These things may sound weird but for Brynn they’re almost therapeutic. Plus it keeps her busy while alone in the country, where lately the only excitement has been the strange circle of dead grass that suddenly popped up in her well-manicured yard.

One night Brynn is awakened by a loud banging outside her house. At first she thinks it’s varmints in the trash cans. But when she discovers her front door open and hears footsteps downstairs, it’s clear she has an intruder. From here the movie takes on the feel of a home invasion thriller. But Duffield doesn’t let us settle in. He quickly reveals that her intruder isn’t from this planet. It’s an alien which sends the film in a much different direction than I was expecting.

This really is a case of ‘the less you know the better’ so I’ll leave you to discover the numerous surprising twists and turns for yourselves. I will say that many of the film’s classic sci-fi inspirations are impossible to miss and it possesses a tasty B-movie flavor that hearkens back to so many movies I cut my cinematic teeth on. But it’s what Duffield does with those inspirations that is so impressive. He takes a lot of familiar pieces and fits them together into something truly his own.

As I watched “No One Will Save You” thoughts of “The Twilight Zone” kept swirling around in my mind. At times the similarities are uncanny. I found myself routinely blown away by Duffield and DP Aaron Morton’s knack for framing one stunning shot after another. I was captivated by the storytelling which relies on its visual language and the intensely expressive Kaitlyn Dever rather than dialogue. And as a lover of genre filmmaking, I was giddy with excitement every time the movie took another unexpected turn. Like I said – what a treat. “No One Will Save You” is streaming now on Hulu.

VERDICT – 4 STARS