Introduction
Santiago Menghini’s 2021 film No One Gets Out Alive blends supernatural horror and social commentary like His House and The Babadook. It is based on a novel of the same name by Adam Nevill, and released as a Netflix Original. THe film follows an undocumented immigrant in Cleveland as she lives through a nightmare wrought by ancient rituals, exploitation, and psychological trauma while searching for a new beginning. The film explores the themes of invisibility, alienation, and sacrifice.
Although the movie contains classic haunted house elements, it is much more than a story full of ghosts and jump scares. By merging social realism and horror, Menghini succeeds in creating a unique voice within the modern world of horror cinema. No One Gets Out Alive is a contemporary addition to the genre that uses fear to address deeper societal issues.
Plot Overview
The narrative centers on Ambar, a character portrayed by Cristina Rodlo, a young Mexican women who recently relocated to the United States following her mother’s demise. She is undocumented, broke, and lonely. Relocation offers no legal documentation nor resources for Ambar to stabilize her life. She lands a subpar job at a clothing factory and rents a room in an old boarding house meant for women.
The boarding house is quiet and eerie. It is managed by a cold and mysterious man called Red (Marc Menchaca) who informs Ambar that payment is only accepted in cash. No visitors are permitted. The moment she arrived, Ambar’s episodes of strange events—ghostly visions, whispers, and mother-related nightmares—beg accompany her. The house itself seems to be an entity weeping in sorrow, its decaying walls soaked in secrets.
Initially, Ambar dismisses the supernatural happenings as trivial and rationalizes them as stress and grief. Nevertheless, the situation becomes far worse than she imagined. Other women are mysteriously disappearing after residing in the house. One night, she spots Red’s mentally unstable brother Becker, who roams the halls and seems to be tied to the house’s dark past.
While investigating the mystery, Ambar finds an ancient box in the basement of the house. The box, which is covered in Aztec carvings, seems to be connected to a ritualistic human sacrifice. To her surprise, the house does have a gruesome history of women being lured into the house for decades, serving as sacrifices to a parasitic entity god living inside the box. Red and Becker are not just greedy landlords; they are ritualistic cult-like figures bound to serve the creature for their own selfish reasons.
When she attempts to escape, she is captured, drugged, and bound as the next ritual sacrifice. In the film’s disturbing peak, she is shown to the creature—what appears to be a grotesque, stone-like feminine monstrosity with a skeletal head that consumes victims not by biting, but poring out their essence to be contorted into a freakish stone.
Instead of submitting to her fate, Ambar pushes back fighting off both Red and Becker. Surprising everyone, she kills both of them and makes a deal with the monster, offering it what it desires most: her trauma and pain. In doing so, she survives. Ambar’s final scene depicts her transformed and empowered, although not fully free, controlling the house and having usurped the position of her captors. This raises the question if she has truly escaped or simply inherited their curse?
Characters and Performances
Cristina Rodlo as Ambar
Rodlo’s performance is the emotional core of the film. She plays Ambar with quiet strength and emotional depth. She conveys vulnerability without utter helplessness. Through small gestures and facial expressions, she portrays the profound exhaustion and fear of a woman perpetually on the edge of breaking, yet is determined. Her performance empathizes the humanity of undocumented migrants, a character often ignored, forced to navigate a system designed for their oppression.
Marc Menchaca as Red
Menchaca brings a chilling intensity to Red, who oscillates from dangerously calm to violently unhinged. He serves as both a gatekeeper and a servant to the house’s evil. Menchaca embodies the banality of evil, the notion that ordinary people can commit genuinely monstrous actions.
David Figlioli as Becker
In comparison to Red, Becker is disquieting in his own manner. While more physically dangerous than Red, Becker is also mentally decaying in an unpredictable way and with a sense of tragic pathos. The long-term exposure to the evil of the house makes him both a victim and a villain.
No One Gets Out Alive: Themes and Analysis
Immigration and Exploitation
The psychological terror woven throughout the film is deeply connected to Ambar’s identity as an undocumented immigrant. Her situation, much like that of many migrants, renders her susceptible to exploitation. The movie portrays the harsh reality of the undocumented, including underpayment, insufficient healthcare access, deportation anxiety, unsafe living conditions, and housing exploitation.
Ambar’s lack of legal status is a burden that comes with her being portrayed in the film, and this status acts as a source of horror too. During her ordeal, no one lends her a helping hand. With no access to stable employment, no police protection, and societal invisibility, she is a prey. The boarding house serves as a metaphor for systems engineered to prey upon women and migrants, as the spaces where they are rendered vulnerable .
Trauma and Sacrifice
The creature in the box does not only feed on flesh; it nourishes on emotional anguish. Each woman rendered to her suffering is burdened with soul-wrenching personal trauma, making them “ideal” offerings. Ambar’s profound sorrow from her mother’s death, her solitude, and her desperation all serve as the currency that nourishes the monster. This supernatural metaphor is a reflection of the sociological allegory depicting how society tends to exploit the suffering of marginalized peoples.
The final twist—Ambar offering her trauma to the entity and living—presents intricate ethical dilemmas. Defeated the system or became an extension of it? Turned the tables or surrendered her soul for mere existence?
Cycle of Oppression
Ambar is alive, but the transformation hints she could be the newest gatekeeper. While the film does not fully develop this idea, it does suggest that systems of power, once entered, can seduce even the oppressed. Liberated but at a cost, and for Ambar, it is likely at the expense of others’ freedom.
Cinematography and Atmosphere
Visually, the film adopts a cold and claustrophobic approach to the boarding house which serves as the film’s character, dark, moldy, decaying, filled with creaks and shadows. They also employ narrow corridors and low light which paired with muted color magnifies the heightened tension and the feeling of isolation for Ambar.
The supernatural elements do not exhibit any gory or theatrical traits.. Rather, horror is birthed from the unknown, silence, obscured figures, and the suffocating presence the house offers. The monster’s design and the ritual box are particularly striking— mytological horrors steeped in cultural symbolism that is both unsettling and ancient.
Reception and Impact
No one gets out alive received mostly positive reviews focusing on the social aspects concerning the issues of immigration. Cristina Rodlo’s performance, as well as the film’s atmospheric direction received praise from both audiences and critics alike. Some noted the pacing and ambiguity of the ending as concerns, but others noted the film’s willingness to embrace complexity and avoid simplistic resolution was commendable.
The film does not depend on relentless frights to deliver impact; rather, its resonance stems from emotionally authentic horror and thematic depth. It adds to the body of work that consciously critiques social issues, such as economic disparity and the suffering of women, through the lens of horror. Other examples include Get Out, His House, and Tigers Are Not Afraid.
Conclusion
No One Gets Out Alive is more than a story of a haunted house; it is a reflection on the experience of exile, the will to survive, and the cost one must pay to be free. It challenges viewers with questions such as, What does it take to escape a system designed to consume you? And even if you do escape, what remains of you?
With striking imagery, haunting performances, and a powerful subtext, the film is able to provide scares while simultaneously critiquing the harsh realities of oppression. It is a bleak, yet thought-provoking contribution to the horror genre; one that illustrates how the most terrifying monsters often exist among those who prey on human desperation.
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