No Exit (2022) Review!!

Synopsis – During a blizzard and stranded at an isolated highway rest stop in the mountains, a college student discovers a kidnapped child hidden in a car belonging to one of the people inside.

My Take – Of course there are a few exceptions, but on a general scale thriller novels don’t usually adapt well as feature films. Hence, I didn’t have much expectations from this latest adaption too.

A probable reasoning behind that could be that I wasn’t particularly impressed by author Taylor Adams‘s 2017 novel (on which the film is based), and the other factor being that the film has bypassed cinemas and landed straight-to-stream on Hulu and Disney+ Star, courtesy of Disney‘s deal with Fox, and is one of its number of straggling pre-buyout productions.

However, backed by a small scale premise, a taut runtime, solid performances, an insane amount of relentlessness that somehow they pull off, and a dash of unpredictable brutality, it gets the job done of being a suitably engaging thriller, far better than it had any right to.

Directed by Damien Power (Killing Ground) and written by Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari (Ant Man and the Wasp), even with its familiar elements, the film is well built within an immersive atmosphere through single-location film-making, where the camera work and the score become the technical highlights in this visually fascinating work.

Yes, like the novel, the central a mystery is not nearly as engaging as it should have been, and the quick pacing never allows enough time for the trust or distrust to set in, but Havana Rose Liu contributes tremendously as a superb lead and helps in keeping the stakes high as things spiral out of control, resulting in a popcorn thriller filled with surprising violence, intensity, and exhilarating entertainment.

The story follows Darby Thorne (Havana Rose Liu), a cynical drug addict who has been reluctantly placed in a court mandated rehab in Sacramento, California. But when she is informed that her mother has suffered a brain aneurysm, out of desperation, Darby steals one of the facility workers vehicles and makes a run for it, hoping to reach Salt Lake City hospital in time, despite her estrangement from her family.

However, her luck quickly runs out when a developing blizzard causes the interstate to close down, forcing her to camp out overnight at a local visitor’s center, which already has four occupants, husband and wife Ed (Dennis Haysbert) and Sandi (Dale Dickey), the charming Ash (Danny Ramirez) and an ominous Lars (David Rysdahl).

And as Darby moves to the parking lot trying to in vain to get a signal in order to check up on her mother’s condition, she comes across a beat up windowless van in which a young girl (Mila Harris) has been bound and gagged in the back. Unable to dial 911 due to no available network, Darby is forced to figure out who among the four strangers is the abductor, and find a way to save the girl before the storm ends.

Right off the bat, the film makes great use of its isolated and secluded location and director Damien Power shows a solid handling of this type of limited location thriller with solid establishment of the Visitors Center and its surrounding locales and makes one feel the bitterness of the cold, the oppressiveness of the isolation, and tension and unease of the group with every moment.

But while the premise promised a taut whodunit, but running for a lean 95 minutes, the script spends little time to develop this kind of narrative as it begins its barrel towards the conclusion. Little character traits about each of the strangers are peppered into the conversation to help us sympathize and suspect each, but by the time we know who is who, the body count begins to rise.

Nevertheless, despite a straightforward approach to the story director Power finds thrilling ways to keep the momentum accelerating and lets the relentlessly thrills refreshingly take center stage. From the moment a certain event happens we are captivated and the film never releases us.

For the most part the film is framed from Darby’s point of view so we’re very much in her shoes as she’s trapped in this building in the middle of nowhere with no way out. A lot of times, these kinds of one-location thrillers can feel very stagey, but Power avoids this by moving the action from room to room, from inside to outside, throwing new wrenches in Darby’s plans as she scrambles to try to save the girl herself.

The film even lends Darby some layers with brief moments of vulnerability in which she opens up about her drug addiction and estrangement from her family. They lend emotional heft to the film as it ramps up the tension and the gore factor. The film surprised me with how brutal it was willing to be in certain parts. There are no half measures taken. It never feels excessive or gratuitous though. Just doing what the story demands to be done and keeping us on the edge of our seat.

Performances wise, Havana Rose Liu makes for a fantastic lead, and gets enough opportunity to portray Darby’s emotional dealings with past trauma and the physical challenges, especially in the second half of the film. This one is truly a star making performance for Liu.

The film is also bolstered by a strong supporting cast that includes the always enjoyable Dennis Haysbert and Dale Dickey, who bring a veteran presence to the set up, and Danny Ramirez and David Rysdahl, who bring enough complexity to characters that could’ve felt one-note in lesser hands. Young actress Mila Harris also manages to make her presence felt. On the whole, ‘No Exit’ is a taut little nonstop engaging thriller featuring a breakout performance by Havana Rose Liu.