Since No One Gets Out Alive is from the UK, it falls under the category of foreign film. So far, the foreign horror/thriller films have been pretty hit or miss. Maybe I need to start a tally sheet…

Ambar (Cristina Rodlo) is an undocumented Mexican immigrant living in the United States. In order to save money to buy a fake ID, she moves into a boarding house for women run by Red (Marc Menchaca) and his brother, Becker (David Figlioli). Soon, Ambar notices strange things happening at the house. Wanting to get her ID sooner, Ambar convinces Red to give her back the deposit she left for her room. Becker doesn’t agree with his brother about the money. Unfortunately, Ambar learns what is happening to all of the women in the house. Now she is doomed to the same fate.

I didn’t realize that this was a British movie. I thought it was from a Latin American country. Now that I know it’s British, some of the issues with the movie make a little more sense.

While No One wasn’t terrible, it has a pacing problem. A majority of the movie is spend with Ambar trying to hide the fact that she is undocumented. And I don’t mean that we see her facing racism or classism, unless you count her crappy job with her crappy boss. Most of the time that we see Ambar, she is trying to get a fake ID from her co-worker, Kinsi (Moronke Akinola). I think that this was supposed to make us feel bad for her but it doesn’t. Her undocumented status doesn’t isolate her from anyone. Almost the opposite. She has a job, even though she is terrible at it. She has a cousin (or maybe an uncle? I think he gets referred to as both) who invites her over for dinner and gives her a nice winter jacket. She even has friends, though Kensi is a terrible friend. The undocumented thing should have been nothing more than a footnote in her life.

Since this fake ID thing takes up so much time, we don’t really get to the “thriller” part of the movie until it’s almost over. We know that people in the house are dying. It’s the freaking title of the movie. However, we don’t see why until about the 60 minute mark. The movie is only 85 minutes long. I would have loved to have seen the “why” earlier in the movie in order to give Ambar a little more time at the end to react to the outcome. As it is, I’m not completely sure what happens to her when the credits roll.

I honestly don’t know how to rate this film. I wanted it to be more like a terrifying Pan’s Labyrinth but instead got The Mist. Is there a way you could just watch the last half hour or so? The rest of the movie isn’t really necessary for it. Otherwise, just go watch something else. There are better movies that came out this year.