Close your eyes and face the bright of the sun. Let it burn into your eyelids a hot, vivid, red; let it sear its temporary mark onto your retinas until everything goes white-hot, just a few seconds will do, then turn away, and open your eyes.
The 2023 science fiction thriller, No One Will Save You, seems to harken back to the days of silent film. There is barely any dialogue in the entire film, which instead, keeps audiences in a state of constant alertness by heightening the mundane sound effects of floors creaking and dial tones, mixed with uncanny noises that indicate a threatening alien presence, against an eerie soundtrack by Joseph Trapanese. Watching the film recently, I couldn’t help but think that perhaps silent film had gotten something right when it comes to sound. Perhaps dialogue muddies the power of sound in a film and, by not bringing the explicit messaging and plot development of speech to a film, the deep impact of everyday and unearthly sound and music could have a greater hold on audiences.