Don’t you love coming across movies you’ve never heard of, with actors you’ve never or rarely seen, directed by an unknown director, only to discover the movie is fucking excellent.
According to IMDB, the popularity of No Exit is trending up, and I can see why. It is a white-knuckle suspense thriller that doesn’t give you one second to breathe once the snowball of tension starts tumbling down the hill.
Because this is a new movie I will not give too much away, but here is the basic plot: No Exit is about Darby, played expertly by Havana Rose Liu, who is a drug addict stuck in rehab. After finding out her mother is gravely ill, Darby makes a successful escape from the rehab center, stealing a car, destined for a hospital in Salt Lake City. The only problem is, there is a blizzard ensuing. So, Darby ends up at a rest stop in the mountains, snowed in with four other people. When she goes outside in an attempt to find cell service, she discovers there is a child tied up in the back of a van. One of the people inside must have kidnapped the kid, but Darby doesn’t know who . . .
I can’t say this enough—Havana Rose Liu as Darby is sooo good. Before she even discovers the kidnapped kid, there is already oodles of tension (yes, I said oodles). Darby is a young woman lost in life. She has burnt bridges with her family because of her drug use. We see the hurt and anger and regret in her. And when she finds drugs in the car she has stolen, we see her inner conflict, her desire to toss it out the window and her desire to do one last hit. It was already a good movie before the real action even started.
The rest of the cast is great too. The only two I really recognized were Dennis Haysbert, from all those fucking Allstate commercials, and Danny Ramirez, who was in Top Gun: Maverick. But all of them play their roles to perfection. When shit starts getting heavy, it’s near impossible to look away. On the few occasions my wife paused the movie, I felt like I was being pulled out of the film, like I had been so engrossed in what was happening that my living room had melted away.
As great as No Exit is, I do have a couple of complaints. There are a couple of scenes involving a nail gun. Now, I know nail guns can be rigged to shoot without pressing down on the safety—fine—but they don’t fire with near the power suggested by the movie. It can’t break a car window from thirty feet away. Also, where was the battery on that nail gun? Because it wasn’t hooked up to an air compressor.
Then the ending. It’s a good ending. No, it’s a great ending. But I’m positive—and I’m certain the writers probably feel the same way—it was not the right ending. I totally get that audiences want movies to end a certain way. But there is a difference between an ending the audience wants and an ending the story needs. I saw that No Exit is based on a novel. I would be interested to see if the novel ends the same way or if the author, Taylor Adams, made the choice I would have gone with. I know one thing—my wife says I’m totally wrong about how it should have ended.
PC3’s Horror and Exploitation Movie Scale of Awesomeness!
Gore - 6
Special Effects - 6
Nudity/Sexuality - 0
Wow Factor - 8
Acting - 10
Fear Factor - 8
Story/Plot/Originality - 7
Cinematography/Atmosphere - 8
Sound/Music - 6
Fun Factor - 6
Hell yeah, a nice 65 PHEMSA for No Exit. I can’t recommend this enough. It’s an edge-of-your-seat thriller that doesn’t let up. You can find it on Hulu.
If you’re looking for some more white-knuckle suspense, check out the writings of my friend Chris Miller. In particular, his books Trespass, Shattered Skies, and his upcoming mystery novel, which I edited, Dub-Town Blues.