No Exit Review

From the brilliant minds of Flitcraft (a lesser known studio), comes No Exit. The twisting and turning story starts life in a drugs rehabilitation centre, where a young woman hears her mother is in hospital after suffering from a brain aneurism. Frightened on hearing the severity of her mom’s critical condition, Derby breaks out of the institution before stealing a car to reach the hospital.

However, due to a blizzard, the desperate daughter is stopped along the way by the long arm of the law. After telling Derby the road is closed due to the snow, he offers her the options of turning back and going home, or waiting the storm out in the visitor’s centre. With the former option not really being an option at all, she decides to go on to the centre and wait out the road-closing tempest.

No Exit is a One-Way Trip to Paranoia

On reaching the rest-stop, Derby meets a group of people who have found themselves in the same situation. An older couple, Ed (Dennis Haysbert, 24) and Sandi (Dale Dickey, Breaking Bad); a young man (Danny Remirez, On my Block) and the token oddball Lars (David Rysdahl, The Family). After introductions, Derby ventures out into the snow to try and get a signal on her cell phone and is just about to give up when she makes a discovery. One of the vehicles, a van, in the parking lot is prison to a small girl bound and gagged. With no cell phone signal to inform the police, Derby is forced to take matters into her own hands.

This is where No Exit begins to snowball. It’s evident that one of the group is a child kidnapper, but just who that is, is anybody’s guess.

The movie has a certain knack for stirring the emotions and constantly preys on your paranoia to keep you guessing. Before the truth is revealed, you find yourself unable to trust any of the main characters. This almost tangible feeling is reinforced with each of the characters in turn. The result is a medley of tension and excitement, right until the ending crescendo.

A Tense Movie with Pace

Aside from the brilliant use of the viewer’s emotions, No Exit, offers a racy, fast-paced rollercoaster ride that grips you from the start as it throws you straight into the action. From here, the movie just keeps picking up pace until all is revealed and hits you with a real sucker-punch. It’s just as you’re recovering when the movie explodes into a brutally brilliant last ten-minutes.

The Cast of No Exit

The cherry atop this near perfect cake of horror is the great casting. Being a huge fan of 24, I was over the moon to see President Palmer on the screen again and Dickey was perfectly cast for the role of his partner, Sandi. David Rhysdahl executed his part as the token idiot and stole the show in more than one scenes. The casting director, Rich Delia, picked the perfect crew to step into the widely differing shoes of the characters of No Exit.

Summary

There’s very little I can fault with No Exit. If you’re looking for a fast paced horror, full of suspense and blood then you can’t go far wrong with this title. The pace is relentless and the suspense hangs over the viewer like a dark, foreboding cloud. However, if it’s a deeply immersive storyline you seek, then I’d advise on giving this one a clear miss. For all it’s horror glory and excitement, No Exit falls short on delivering anything beyond a loose plot.