By Jenn Arias ’23
Staff writer
Warning: spoilers.
No Exit, a Hulu Original thriller released late February, 2022, follows Darby (Havana Rose Liu), a recovering addict living in a rehabilitation hospital. Darby gets news of her mother’s brain aneurysm, sending her fleeing from Sober Living home while risking incarceration.
Determined to reach her mother, she steals a car in the hospital parking lot, but Mother Nature has other plans. An awful mountain blizzard closes highway roads and Darby’s forced to wait out the storm in a visitor’s center with four strangers.
The storm knocked out any Wi-Fi signal, buried their cars and…something’s not quite right about the geeky loner with the conversion van with windows covered by cardboard.
While the opening scenes establish the space and time of the movie, some parts feel unnecessary and forced. Yet, this information ends up being crucial to Darby’s psychological breakdown as she discovers a young girl in the back of the van and must figure out who to trust with both of their lives.
Most of the film takes place in one location with five characters, but the conversations never feel forced and the action never feels stilted. With familiar supporting actors such as Dale Dickey (who plays Sandi, a retired nurse) and Dennis Haysbert (yes, the guy from the Allstate commercials), every scrap of new information shows us that each character is not exactly what they seem. Each has their own hidden agenda, leading us on a search for the real creeper.
No Exit is a textbook thriller for any horror buff, riddled with plot twists that keep you guessing. As I shouted at the TV, “Run, Darby, get out of there!” the ending did not wrap up in a traditional or expected way, leaving a lasting impression about what is possible with enough willpower and just a tiny bit of cocaine.
