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In his piece<\/a> for CT, Aaron Earls explores what C. S. Lewis thought about evangelizing aliens\u2014provided we discover they do indeed exist. But what if aliens came to proselytize us?<\/p>\n Directed by Brian Duffield and now streaming on Hulu<\/a>, No One Will Save You<\/em> is a mostly silent sci-fi horror film featuring only a single discernible line of dialogue<\/a>. The film has already earned high praise<\/a> from the likes of Stephen King and other horror genre heavyweights.<\/p>\n In it, a young woman named Brynn (played by Kaitlyn Dever) must fight off an alien invasion in her small town, from which she\u2019s been ostracized for reasons we don\u2019t find out until later. The movie\u2019s extraterrestrials are archetypal \u201cgrey man\u201d<\/a> aliens, hauntingly recognizable to many a sci-fi fan.<\/p>\n But Duffield and his team wanted the alien takeover to be marked with spiritual overtones. \u201cHaving these religious aspects felt like a way to differentiate the aliens from other pop culture,\u201d Duffield told Christianity Today. \u201cI wanted there to be an aspect to them where you couldn\u2019t debate [the aliens] because they had this faith that told them what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n I was tipped off about some of these religious nuances early on by a thread<\/a> on Twitter\/X from director Guillermo del Toro. Known for horror films himself (such as Pan\u2019s Labyrinth<\/em>), del Toro praised No One Will Save You and said it embodies an \u201cessential principle in Catholic dogma\u201d where \u201cgrace and salvation emerge from pain and suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n While that may not be quite what Duffield had in mind when crafting his film, he admits it\u2019s \u201cexciting that it could be read through a Catholic lens,\u201d and that the film\u2019s undeniable religious imagery was both a conscious and subconscious decision birthed from his own background as a missionary kid. As a pastor\u2019s kid myself and a lover of horror films, I was fascinated by how he weaved together the spiritual and the horrific.<\/p>\n Duffield spoke to CT about crafting the liturgy and prayer lives of the extraterrestrial(s), how his Christian upbringing may have influenced the religious aspects of the film, and why he loves using the horror genre to explore themes of faith and spirituality. Spoiler warning: we discuss the film\u2019s ending as well as some key scenes.<\/p>\n This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n Congrats on the film! I saw that you <\/strong>shared<\/strong><\/a> t<\/strong>hat you were a missionary kid who grew up in Ireland. As much as you\u2019re willing to put on the record, could you share your experience? <\/strong><\/p>\n Well, in \u201995 my family moved from Pennsylvania to Ireland to work at a church and start churches in Ireland. We started off in County Kildare. We were there for a while and then we moved to County Claire, where my parents started a church near the Shannon Airport. That was a lot of my childhood. I came back to the States and started off [in college] at what is now Messiah University. I also did some [studies] with Temple University, where Messiah had a sister school program. Then I went to Hollywood.<\/p>\n Tale as old as time. It\u2019s funny because the Sunday that you shared briefly about your missionary background, I saw that it was in response to this <\/strong>thread<\/strong><\/a> that director Guillermo del Toro had posted, where he explained some of the theological themes in the film. After reading it, I was like, I guess I don\u2019t need to go to church because I already got a sermon<\/em>. <\/strong>I\u2019m curious: What was your reaction when you saw his words, and did you agree with some of the ways he was reading the film? <\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, it was really cool. When very famous people promote the movie, I always assume there\u2019s money under the table. He had posted about the movie the previous day, and I was like, Oh, that\u2019s very cool<\/em>, and then when I woke up to his thread where he really dug in and engaged with the film beyond just, Go watch this movie on Hulu<\/em>\u2014that was all very mind-blowing.<\/p>\n There\u2019s definitely a lot of religion in the movie. I\u2019m personally not a Catholic, but it was cool seeing how he engaged with the idea that the aliens were faith-based, especially when he was getting into the Eucharist stuff<\/a>. That\u2019s not at all what I brought to the table with the movie, but it was very exciting that it could be read through a Catholic lens.<\/p>\n I read in an <\/strong>interview<\/strong><\/a> that you shared how the weird religious aspects to the aliens is \u201cprobably the result of some childhood trauma\u201d that you had. Did you find yourself consciously or more subconsciously drawing upon your missionary\/faith background when you were constructing the imagery and themes of the film? <\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a little bit of both. The aliens being faith-based was always a really big part of it for me. In human history, colonizers and explorers\u2014whatever faith they have\u2014never view themselves as the bad guys. They\u2019re more like, We gotta raise these people up to our level<\/em>.<\/p>\n For Brynn\u2019s character, what\u2019s terrifying is that she\u2019s not just abducted by aliens but by an alien cult. She doesn\u2019t know what the aliens\u2019 strange gestures mean but she knows it\u2019s not good for her.<\/p>\n Like when the little alien is chasing Brynn, I thought it\u2019d be great if there was a scene where he took a break from chasing Brynn and just started praying\u2014the daddy-longlegs-type alien we viewed as the priest alien, who is directly communing with the UFOs and is having these very ritualistic hand motions.<\/p>\n I was trying to build in these moments where even if Brynn couldn\u2019t understand the aliens, she had this sense that they had this broader culture to them. That was intentional, as opposed to having the aliens just hiss like racoons.<\/p>\n That\u2019s interesting to think about it. It makes me think of how in evangelical culture, we normalize so much that can look completely weird to people who are on the outside. <\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah! In the film, when people are controlled by the aliens, we had them very specifically doing praise and worship hands to the UFO. I wanted to show in a simple way that there\u2019s been a sort of \u201cconversion\u201d into this belief system at play.<\/p>\n If an alien walked into church or a mosque or anything, there\u2019s going to be these ritualistic aspects that are completely bizarre. I think that\u2019s been true in human history, where you have these guys come over on ships and they cannot be more different than the native people of the land. \u2026 But then also show how this is typically how these things have gone in human history.<\/p>\n Yeah, even though we can\u2019t understand what the aliens are saying (there are no subtitles when the aliens are communicating), I felt like there were these interesting spiritual and theological notes that were apparent. I\u2019m thinking of how you framed the alien abduction scenes as a twisted form of rapture, or how when the aliens \u201cconvert\u201d people, they\u2019re shoving the mind-controlling parasite down their victims\u2019 throats. Insert shoving Scripture or the Bible down people\u2019s throats, etc.<\/strong><\/p>\n Some of those were specific. Even the light from the UFO when it abducts people is such a holy light in a way.<\/p>\n One of the questions I\u2019ve talked with my nerdy friends about is: If aliens are real, why is the government hiding it? I get the economic impact. If Biden comes out tomorrow and says, \u201cAliens are real! They\u2019re here!\u201d I\u2019m sure the economy would shatter.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s also this aspect of how religions around the world would have a real look-in-the-mirror moment. What happens if aliens come and they say to us, \u201cWe\u2019re here to tell you the Good Word\u201d? It all becomes very complicated and interesting.<\/p>\n I pared back exploring some of this in the film, though, because it started to feel like a different movie. But it was intentional that the aliens had this belief system and something like a God that we see toward the end of the movie\u2014and that being a terrifying aspect to Brynn. She has this sense that there\u2019s no fighting this.<\/p>\n The cult-y setting of the film is interesting as well, because we know Brynn\u2019s in a hostile community and in some form of danger even before the aliens show up. The ambiance reminded me of the vibes of an uptight and sheltered religious community. It\u2019s interesting to think that she goes from one type of \u201ccult\u201d to another \u201ccult\u201d with the aliens. <\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, that was very intentional. It\u2019s the same with that scene where she visits the church [where Brynn avoids an alien attack and then flees to her town\u2019s church, but when she tries to enter, the doors are locked].<\/p>\n That came from some of my frustrations with what feels like the lack of Jesus in modern American Christianity. You would hope that for Brynn in that instance, the church community would band together. Instead, she\u2019s expelled like a splinter.<\/p>\n We even cut a scene due to pacing, where after she sees the UFO over the church, she tries to break in, but all these shrieking alarms go off. It was there just for the comment, not for the movie, so it was hard to justify.<\/p>\n I think my parents, to their immense credit, would be the ideal version of what church should bring to a community, but that hasn\u2019t always been my experience in regard to what the church has been.<\/p>\n Yeah, the church shouldn\u2019t be known primarily for who it ostracizes, but for some parts of evangelical American Christianity, that seems to be the case. This makes me also think of the ending. I\u2019m a pastor\u2019s kid, so I feel like I see everything in terms of a sermon illustration. <\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s that scene where we learn why Brynn has been rejected from her community: She unintentionally killed her close friend Maude when she was younger, after the two had an argument. Then she was exiled from her community in a way, which was sort of giving Cain and Abel vibes. <\/strong><\/p>\n I was also thinking of how when Brynn was captured by the aliens, she was sent back to her town, back to the place that\u2019s caused her so much pain. But then at the ending, there\u2019s an element of restoration of community when she\u2019s spent so much of the film alone. Perhaps contrary to the title, there is some \u201csaving\u201d here for her. <\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s been fun seeing people grapple with the end of the film. For me, I wanted to explore this idea of how these terrible experiences end up being inadvertently healing. The aliens don\u2019t mean to heal her at all. They\u2019re just kind of curious. Yet out of their curiosity, she\u2019s able to weirdly make peace with some aspects of her past.<\/p>\n At the end of the film, she is transformed and different. Encountering the aliens, she has this holy moment with a higher being that is inexplicable to her. That felt very much like Saul turning into Paul. I\u2019ve been seeing a lot of people be like, Why did the aliens let her go?<\/em> I think there\u2019s a big Christian element to salvation where it is inexplicable.<\/p>\n Like you can say, \u201cIt\u2019s because [God] loves us,\u201d but when you think about it, even that is inexplicable. And for the film, I liked sort of co-opting some of that because it is, you know, by grace we\u2019re saved. I think that\u2019s true for Brynn.<\/p>\n There so much [spiritual\/Christian] stuff like that in the movie. Some of it I can\u2019t articulate, and some of it my editor will point out.<\/p>\n Pivoting slightly, this is your second feature film, but you\u2019ve written many scripts for a number of horror\/monster films like Underwater <\/em>and Love and Monsters<\/em>. Do you find the horror genre (and perhaps the subset of the monster horror genre) a uniquely helpful one when exploring questions of faith and spirituality? What draws you to that? Because it seems to be your wheelhouse. <\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a good question. I would love to have a First Reformed<\/em><\/a> in my wheelhouse or a more out-of-left-field Christian movie like Black Snake Moan<\/em>. I love those movies and what they say about faith, the struggle with faith, and the positivity of faith. I think where I\u2019m age-wise, I understand things through genre better.<\/p>\n