WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for No One Will Save You.
No One Will Save You braced Hulu screens as a psychological horror, set in a small village that was filmed in rural New Orleans, United States. A newly prominent factor for horror audiences, this film has followed a similar trend to films such as The Quiet Place, and uses only eight spoken words on-screen, creating an eerie atmosphere and deafening silence. The film aired on Hulu and Disney+ Star in September 2023, as well as in selected New York and Los Angeles theaters, and had an incredible budget of $22.8 million.
Despite its lack of dialogue, audiences responded well to No One Will Save You, praising Kaitlyn Dever’s performance, and earning itself a strong audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Additional special effects were also provided by British team DNEG, which were also praised by critics, but the village in the film is not given a confirmed location, leaving many wondering where No One Will Save You was filmed.
Louisiana, New Orleans – External Scenes
No One Will Save You started principal photography for the shoot in April 2022, in Louisiana, New Orleans as location inspiration. No One Will Save You has one line of actual dialogue, in an attempt to build further tension to the horror, and so the religious buildings were too used to add to the ongoing “eeriness” of the atmosphere needed. Several parts of Louisiana were used for on-set locations, a plan that had to take into account COVID restrictions during shooting, but ultimately the film was completed two months after principal photography began.
A lot of the set design was also inspired by director and writer Brian Duffield’s childhood, who was raised by two missionary parents in Ireland. Predominant principal photography was taken at three parishes across Louisiana: the St. Bernard Parish, the Plaquemines Parish, and the Jefferson Parish. Elements of the film’s village could be inspired by the more rural areas in Louisiana, as well as rural parts of Pennsylvania, where Duffield was born and lived until the age of nine. Duffield used the set design as exposition for the film, having previously stated that it makes sense for audiences to see the setting as a 50s-inspired oasis, with jarring technological reminders that is indeed set in the twenty-first century.
A House In Louisiana, New Orleans – Brynn’s House
Brynn, the protagonist of No One Will Save You, played by Kaitlyn Dever, is a seamstress living in a seemingly quiet, out-in-the-sticks village. Everyone hates Brynn, and so she lives a solitary life alone following the death of her mother. At no point during the film, there is any confirmation of the geographical location of Brynn’s village, but these scenes were also filmed in Louisiana. However, Duffield claims that Brynn’s house from her model town was supposed to be a reflection of Brynn’s relationship with her mother, so it’s possible that the village is really a hallucinatory combination of multiple memories, melded into one physical place. Regardless, it was an actual house, not a soundstage.
