NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE (2021)

Studio:     Netflix
Director:    Santiago Menghini
Writer:     Jon Croker, Fernanda Coppel
Producer:  Jonathan Cavendish, Will Tennant
Stars:     Cristina Rodlo, Marc Menchaca, David Figlioli, David Barrera, Moronke Akinola

Review Score:

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Summary:

An immigrant rents a room in a boarding house haunted by the ghosts of women who were victims of a mysterious blood ritual.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

After years of caring for a terminally ill mother who recently died, Ambar Cruz finally pursues a new life as an undocumented immigrant in Ohio. Ambar rents a room in a boarding house run by Red and his mysterious brother Becker. Ambar soon begins having visions of women haunting the house as well as nightmares involving an unseen creature inside an ancient stone box. Over time, Ambar also briefly meets other immigrant women boarding in the home including Freja, Petra, and Maria.

While Red is distracted, Ambar investigates the secret study that is off limits to boarders. Ambar finds artifacts, tapes, and files collected in Mexico by Red and Becker’s parents, Professor Arthur Welles and his wife Mary. The materials document Mesoamerican rituals that involve human sacrifices and the stone box from Ambar’s nightmares.

Ambar’s coworker Kinsi scams Ambar out of her cash by promising a fake id only to then disappear. Ambar also loses her under-the-table factory job by unintentionally angering her boss.

Back at the house, Ambar hears screaming from the shower drain before seeing a brief vision of Freja. Ambar asks about Freja, but Red claims she moved out several days earlier.

Paranormal activity that includes pleas for help from invisible entities suddenly plagues Ambar’s room. Frightened, Ambar calls unfamiliar family friend Beto, who refuses Ambar’s request to provide a place to stay. Out of money and unable to find Red, Ambar simply flees the house.

Over the phone, Ambar asks Red to meet her at a diner to return her security deposit. When he arrives however, Red claims he doesn’t have the cash with him. Under the pretense of returning her money, Red convinces Ambar to return to the house.

Back in her room, Red tells Ambar that his father was a crazy person who collected strange items and killed Red’s mother. Red also claims he was going to help Ambar, but his brother Becker needs her. Becker enters the room and performs ritualistic motions including chanting, spreading a substance on Ambar’s face, and forcing liquid down her throat. The two brothers confine Ambar to her room with a warning that her treatment will worsen if she tries to leave again.

Petra and Maria come to Ambar for help escaping Becker. Petra and Ambar discover they both dream of the stone box, which Petra believes exists in the basement. More visions of dead women haunt Ambar.

The brothers come to collect the three women, but are interrupted when Beto comes to the door looking for Ambar. Becker beats Beto to death.

Red explains to Ambar that his father forced his mother to help him murder women as part of a ritual he discovered could cure ill health. Arthur then killed Mary. The two brothers killed their father, but Becker became obsessed with believing the box chose him to cure his illness too. Ambar pleads for Red to spare her life, but Red insists he must help his brother.

Becker chains Ambar to an altar in the basement and leaves her alone with the stone box. A creature emerges. The creature gives Ambar a vision that she is embracing her dying mother when in reality the monster begins killing Ambar. Sensing something is wrong, Ambar resists. Ambar smothers her mother with a pillow in the vision, which causes the creature to retreat to its box in reality.

Ambar goes back upstairs. Ambar recovers a ceremonial weapon from the study and uses it to viciously attack the two brothers. Becker fights back, but Petra steps in to save Ambar. Becker throws Petra down a stairwell to her death. Ambar clubs Becker to death with the weapon.

Ambar drags Red to the basement and chains him to the altar. The creature emerges from the box to kill Red. Red becomes another ghost trapped in the house.

Ambar stumbles to leave the house, but her wounds suddenly heal. Ominous veins begin pulsing on Ambar’s head just like they did on Becker.

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Review:

The trick with Netflix thrillers is you have to create your own criteria for choosing which ones to put in your queue. For starters, there are simply too many of them. A majority of the streaming giant’s original productions are indistinct adventures in assembly line mediocrity. They’re churned out so fast and so furiously, another ten have come and gone before you can even finish watching one.

It doesn’t help that nearly none of Netflix’s films come with any major marketing. You also rarely hear people gabbing about these nonevents on social media after the first hour has passed on release day. Unless there’s a notable name, uncharacteristic media coverage, or some other hook to grab you, you’re pretty much on your own to guess, “Is this going to be worth my time or just another forgettable flash in a totally pedestrian pan?”

“No One Gets Out Alive” checked enough boxes for me that I figured I’d take the leap, even though it looked like an average haunted house yarn no one would remember in two months time. The first box was that the story is set in my hometown of Cleveland. The city doesn’t appear onscreen all that often, so I like to give those movies a look when it does.

But swap out an establishing shot of the Terminal Tower with B-roll of any other location’s landmarks and “No One Gets Out Alive” could take place anywhere. Most of the movie plays out indoors anyway. It’s perfectly fine that Cleveland doesn’t specifically matter much however. Subtext and context alike push the point that undocumented immigrants struggle everywhere in America. “No One Gets Out Alive” could happen anywhere in more ways than one, so it’s reasonable for Cleveland to blur into Anytown, USA.

A better mark in the film’s favor is that Jon Croker and Fernanda Coppel based their screenplay on a novel by Adam Nevill. Nevill previously wrote “The Ritual,” which director David Bruckner turned into a fabulous folk frightener, probably the best bite of original horror under Netflix’s belt (review here). Bruckner also jumps aboard “No One Gets Out Alive” as an executive producer alongside Andy Serkis, further pumping up the film’s pedigree as having been molded by hands belonging to some of the best in the business.

“No One Gets Out Alive” continued holding my attention because I thought I’d maybe seen it before. Turns out I was thinking of the similar sounding “Nobody Gets Out Alive” (review here). In any event, early reviews also offered big pops of praise. Taking everything together, it seemed like “No One Gets Out Alive” was set up to buck the trend of tepidly tame thrillers from the Big N. But that’s not what happened.

Cristina Rodlo stars as Ambar, a Mexican immigrant trying to forge a new life for herself in Ohio. She’s stereotypically sympathetic. Ambar’s visible desperation forces her to work hard at a factory job she can’t keep up with. In social situations, she’s well mannered, exuding sheepishly gold-hearted kindness that wars with the uncertain anxiety of being a stranger in a strange land that would exploit any available excuse to send her back where she came from.

Basic though Ambar may be, I somehow still came to like her in spite of plentiful clichés. When I saw Ambar falling for a scam that would steal every last scrap of her cash, I actually felt my heart sink. It happened a second time in a subsequent scene when Ambar figures out she trusted the wrong person and lost her only reliable lifeline for survival. Big credit goes to Cristina Rodlo’s on-point performance, as the simple strength of her personality compelled me to care for a commonplace character, and I didn’t even notice it happening.

I wish something compelled me to care about the paranormal portion of Ambar’s plight. Forced to rent a room in a beat-up boarding house run by two sketchy brothers, Ambar finds herself in a familiar (to us) situation of supernatural spooks. Fleeting figures briefly appear and disappear in the distance. Dead butterflies suddenly come to life and flutter around. We can assume we’re dealing with a curse or a haunting of course, but we’re given precious few hints as to exactly what’s happening and why. We eventually figure it out for ourselves, but by then it’s too late. The unknown can certainly be scary. But too much of a mystery is not a good thing for making scares stick, which is how “No One Gets Out Alive” buries itself under a bunch of semi-creepy “things” that the narrative doesn’t back up with substance.

From here, “No One Gets Out Alive” gets hung up on routine scares like flickering lights, tiptoeing down dark corridors, and everyone’s evergreen favorite: suddenly waking up from a nightmare something like three or four times. Plot beats are equally bland. One predictable scene involves a potential savior who arrives just in the nick of time, if only the person in peril can attract his attention before it’s too late. Another involves two bad guys, one of whom has a Jiminy Cricket conscience capable of considering an emotional plea for help.

On technical terms, “No One Gets Out Alive” is an above average haunter. Director Santiago Menghini demonstrates strong staging with sharp camerawork, a modern gothic look, and rich mood lighting that’s among some of the most detailed I’ve seen for such consistently dark scenery. The movie functions as an excellent show reel for Menghini and is likely to attract attention for future projects.

Yet I’m still surprised some people have gone gaga over a casual chiller that’s really quite rote. I’ve no idea what those folks are talking about with regards to a supposedly surprise twist or overall originality, unless they’ve never seen ritualistic sacrifice in a horror film before. What didn’t they see coming? Although it’s lushly produced, this is standard stuff providing one more reminder that Netflix standouts are rare exceptions, not the rule.

Review Score: 60

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