Score: 4 / 5
Brynn's life seems pretty perfect. She lives in a house that's a little too picturesque, nestled away from any nearby neighbors. She spends her days sewing and building her miniature town, cooking and cleaning, and dancing alone; it's her best impression of what Rapunzel sang about in Tangled. As Kaitlyn Dever plays her, she's a bit anxious about connecting with others, and there's a hint of desperation to hold onto this life. After all, why is she alone? Who is the person named Maude she writes letters to? And what is she going to do when her house is invaded one night by a monster?
Writer and director Brian Duffield (who also wrote Underwater and The Babysitter) wastes absolutely no time getting into the horror of things, and I love that. This is a lean, mean survival movie, and that the home invasion starts so early is just the first of many tricks in his arsenal to ratchet up the tension. During that first encounter, she discovers her nighttime visitor is an alien -- the Grey alien type -- with powers of telekinesis. After a chase and some stalking, all of which is taut and raw in cinematography and editing, she is able to kill it. It's a surprisingly graphic moment for our young leading lady to outright stab her assailant, and it very much sets the tone of the film moving forward. This won't be the last monster in her house, and it won't be her final test.
Afterward, noticing that electronic devices aren't working now, Brynn heads into town past other ransacked houses and vehicles. Clearly her encounter wasn't unique. Her journey into town starts to reveal to us -- and possibly to Brynn, who may or may not be living in a private fantasy world -- the reasons for her self-imposed isolation and what happened between her and Maude. Once she gets back home, after being attacked by several other citizens who seem to be under the influence of malevolent parasites, she prepares for another round of invaders. They do indeed come, after a UFO seems to park above Brynn's house.
In terms of planning and design, this is an expertly crafted film. The whole thing features one -- count it, one -- spoken line of dialogue, and it's a gut punch in context. The rest of the movie is nevertheless beautifully recorded in terms of diegetic sounds of Brynn's environment as well as Dever's relentless breathing, gasping, etc. Watched with attention and a good sound system, this film is terrifying and will creep under your skin right from the off. A primary reason for engagement, though, is Brynn's notable intelligence in fighting her assailants. Despite her silence -- and the clear fact she's not a seasoned fighter or ever been in this kind of situation before -- she's fierce and resourceful, smartly moving through her house without unnecessary noise or panic, finding weapons and using them to appropriate effect. There was maybe once where I groaned at what she chose to do, but the rest of the time I was fully rooting for her.
And even when the film's climax tries to do a little too much -- the repeated capture-and-release scenes pile up a little too quickly, to say nothing of the unearned sentimentality of the "big reveal" -- it's a breathless kinetic rush of ingenuity in presentational style and technical design in all aspects. Even the design of the aliens is cool and weird enough to be really interesting. While the ending left a little to be desired for me, as I'm frankly not sure what we're supposed to "get" from it (the need for some interpretation is fine and dandy unless we aren't given proper context in order to glean meaning), the rest of the tense, violent, and beautiful film more than makes up for it.
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