Reviewing - No One Gets Out Alive | Netflix Horror Movie Reviews OTT Genres

I guess horror movies do better, engage attention more convincingly, and benefit from a well-knit storyline when there is a bit of desperation upfront - your protagonist should not be a corporate leader, a global music star struggling with an affair, or an NBA star being visited by his dead parents. Ideally, the main character should be vulnerable, struggling, overwhelmed, and someone you would normally not bet your money on. No One Gets Out Alive does the characterization to perfection using this approach. Our lady is an immigrant, perpetually out of money, trying to hold on to some type of optimism, and her character reeks of mental health constantly challenged by self-doubt. Taking plenty of clues from how immigration, the more unmanaged type, happens across the US, No One Gets Out Alive presents Ambar as someone seemingly destined to struggle for the rest of her life. To make matters worse, she takes up refuge in a boarding house, which is where nearly 80% of the movie seems to have been shot. The boarding house is the perfect backdrop to this psychological horror movie, with its creaky floors, big rooms with dark corners, ducts that let in the whispers, and staircases that always look daunting. No One Gets Out Alive does not overdo the characterization. You watch Ambar for a couple of minutes, and you get it, even if you have not tasted the illegal immigrant life, even if your college fees were paid years in advance, and perhaps, you have never reconsidered going to a physician's office because of out-of-pocket expenses that an out-of-work mom might not be able to bear.

No One Gets Out Alive gets the setup almost perfect. The background music is creepy or intentionally absent in patches. The twisted brothers managing the boarding house are the right mix of being intrusive, aloof, and weird. Ambar does not get to speak much, but when she does, it is rarely a pleasant conversation. She is convincingly cold, hungry, and has a look in her eyes that makes you feel convinced that yes, far away somewhere along the less populated end of Cleveland. She speaks to the shadows, there are faces in the shadows, there are bodies that move like shadows, and through all of this, Ambar has the resolve not to leave the place because this is perhaps the only thing she can actually afford.

The best thing about No One Gets Out Alive is that it does not diffuse the curiosity at any point. You can feel the buildup coming, and when it does, towards the last 30 minutes of the movie, it justifies the direction and the performances. The entity that needs to be fed, resting in the basement, is unlike the folklore horror you might have seen. It has not been borrowed from Freddy Krueger or any of Stephen King's characters. It is there in the movie for about 5 minutes, but it stays with you. As it turns out, this 'being' has some mythological, perhaps Aztec, origins with a moth-like silhouette, and this humanoid-cum-monster thing makes you believe in the promise that feeding humans to it will actually grant you your wishes and great fortune.

Watch No One Gets Out Alive with realistic expectations. There are jump scares, but very few. The storyline is tight. Overall, the performances are good. It is a bit of creature-feature without making you feel you are watching a VFX presentation. The darkness of greed and the depths of despair are easily felt. This is not top-notch body horror. It is not about gore or last-minute shocks. No One Gets Out Alive paces along beautifully. It has a simple story to tell. It takes time to explain how immigrant women have been sacrificed for personal fortunes without too much fuss.

I watched No One Gets Out Alive on Netflix India during the afternoon and wondered how the non-movie reality of this story is also perhaps real - undocumented men and women, perhaps children too, locked up in basements with the worst things being done to them while on the surface, out in the real world, nobody would even suspect something is happening because such people actually never 'existed'.

NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE DESERVES A SEQUEL

DON'T WATCH THE TRAILERS
DON'T GOOGLE THE AZTEC BEING DEPICTED HERE
DON'T WATCH IT IN PIECES
DON'T WHATSAPP OR TEXT

DON'T MISS THE ENDING - WHAT DEAL AMBAR MAKES WITH THE MOTH BEING?