No Exit Review: The Enigmatic Thriller This Movie Leave No Escape Routes Great Thriller | Hulu Film

Starring: Havana Rose Liu, Dale Dickey, Dennis Haysbert, Danny Ramirez, David Rysdahl

Director: Damien Power

Streaming Platform: Hulu and Disney+

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and half star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Based on the Taylor Adams novel of the same name, No Exit is the new Hulu production for Hulu, available on the Disney+ platform from February 25, 2022. It is an adrenaline-pumping thriller, set completely in a mountain retreat, in nurse of a snowstorm. The twists are guaranteed.

No Exit Review: The Story

Darby is a girl who seems to be having problems and who sets out on a journey to join her sick mother in the hospital. On the way, however, she is forced by a blizzard to stop for the night in a mountain refuge, where she will spend the hours of darkness with other people, strangers who, like her, have been blocked by bad weather. As we begin to get to know each other, the group of strangers begins to expose themselves and the various characters begin to take shape under the eyes of Darby, who is our point of view and our guide in the story. Mystery, suspense and twists will make this night more eventful than the girl could never have imagined.

As the director Damien Power himself had the opportunity to state, the adaptation by Adams already maintains the key points of the novel and above all the high-tension timing and rhythm already in the script phase. This translates into a film that manages to hold the viewer’s attention, also thanks to the excellent performers who bring home a decent result for such a basic story. The constant tension is also obtained thanks to the unity of time and space of the story, which takes place all over the course of one night in an isolated place. As always happens when you reconstruct such situations, the dynamics between the characters are forced, so it is easier for you to become friends, opponents, lovers, or rather that strong and polarized feelings develop between two or more characters, such as to sustain the tones. of the narrative.

No Exit is a game of the ultimate bluff where each character has something to hide , some a little girl in the back of their vehicle, some an unspeakable sin in the depths of their conscience, irremediably dirty. And it is a game that establishes the condition in which Darby and the rest of his companions find themselves, that “Balle” that sets the atmosphere of intrigue and glances to which the protagonists will be destined, trying to look beyond the surface and find behind the masks of their faces and their attitudes the secrets and atrocities committed by each one.

Leisure that becomes a paradigm of the internal dynamics of No Exit’s work, which takes its story from the 2017 novel of the same name written by Taylor Adams. And that in placing himself at the beginning of the encounter between the protagonists, when we still don’t know anything about them, he tries to tease the spectator’s involvement to make him active. He too participates in a moment that appears as a recreation, but which in truth wants to suggest to him who is sincere and who is lying. The first step to delving into a tale that will make its losers pay dearly, much more than the simple humiliation of having lost at a card game.

No Exit Review And Analysis

There is certainly nothing wrong with staging a simple story, instead what No Exit does well is to stage this simple story with a high degree of involvement on the part of the viewer, wisely timing the twists and turns. revelations that slowly make up a puzzle in which the human being certainly does not make a good impression and in which, in the end, only our heroine, Darby, seems to stand out, net of her difficulties and her turbulent path. One of the most important characters of the film is the environment, the snow, the storm, the hostile nature that becomes the scene of the story, which complicates it, tells it, allows it to move forward and develop in an engaging way, all under the Darby’s alert but frightened eyes.

Despite the short duration of the film, just over an hour and a half, No Exit also paints a picture of the personalities and history of the other protagonists of this dramatic story. Our Darby is redirected by a police officer to a shelter to wait for the snowstorm to subside. There are already four other people there who, along with Darby and Jay, make up largely the cast of No Exit themselves. To convey even more a sense of claustrophobic oppression and tension is precisely the fact that the story takes place almost entirely in the refuge and in the external areas in the immediate vicinity; this sense of estrangement is further accentuated by the fact that the protagonists of the story are only six people: a few people, many of whom do not know each other, locked in a confined environment from which one cannot escape due to the blizzard: another dead end situation.

The last and most crucial situation with no escape route then concerns precisely the fulcrum of the story: being able to free the kidnapped child, perhaps without ending up all killed by whoever kidnapped her. But who are the other protagonists? As a narrative expedient to tell their stories, No Exit opts for a game of cards: while the five sit at the table intent on playing, they take the opportunity to talk a little about themselves. In this way, we learn about a part of their stories.

Ash, an open, kind and helpful boy, is played by Danny Ramirez (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Lars, a shy and withdrawn boy, is played by David Rysdahl (Nine Days); And a firm man, determined and very sure of himself, also considering the fact that he is a former soldier to take on his role we find Dennis Haysbert (Lucifer); Sandy is an affable, kind woman, as well as Ed’s wife; bringing it to life in No Exit is Dale Dickey (My Name Is Earl); Jay is the little girl who was kidnapped, played by the very young Mila Harris (Raising Dion ).

The isolated setting, the few spaces in which the story takes place, both inside and outside, and the presence of so few characters contribute to creating a claustrophobic sense of closure, really conveying the impression that there is no way out. leak. The direction and photography then highlight not only the expressions of the actors, all very credible in their roles (especially David Rysdahl), but also fundamental details for a thriller story. The tension is almost constant and follows an ascending climax several times, thus making the story dynamic and thus keeping the spectators’ attention alive.

It gives everyone the opportunity to prove themselves either guilty or innocent. It is with skill behind the camera that the filmmaker manages not to make repetitive a pattern that could be repetitive by always having to move the same pawns, but which instead becomes more exciting with each move, indeed managing to surprise. And it is with the shock of unexpected violence that No Exit strikes the final blow to its characters. Flows of blood ready to spill, caused by a brutality that could be presumed given the still air with which the film starts, but which was not expected to end up impressing and disturbing in such a pronounced way. Nails and wounds that are never superfluous and placed only to make the content spectacular, but rather dictate the progress of the film and the very dangerous escalation it undertakes, unexpected and disconcerting, both in its crude staging and in its confusing truths. As in any self-respecting game, the winner of No Exit will be only one, for a challenge in which the important thing is not only to participate, but to make sure you get out alive.

No Exit Review: The Last Words

There are films that leave no escape routes, No Exit is an example of this. Skillfully juggling the few characters, director Damien Power manages to frame an atmosphere in which everyone can be victims and guilty, trying to give the viewer the right tools to understand who is bluffing, but at the same time reserving some moments of pure surprise. Like the unexpected and very violent violence he adds to the Disney+ thriller painful and impressive sequences.