Stream It Or Skip It: ‘No Exit’ on Hulu, a Head-Spinning Suspense Thriller That’s Like Ultraviolent Agatha Christie

No, Hulu exclusive No Exit isn’t based on Jean-Paul Sartre’s classic play, so you rabid existentialists out there should temper any joie de vivre you may be directing toward the movie. But despair not, hell-is-other-people people, because Damien Power’s film adaptation of Taylor Adams’ suspense novel at least seems conceptually inspired by the French philosopher’s story of three post-life souls trapped in a room, where they can drive each other mad for all eternity. How so, you may ask, and does it work? That’s what I’m here for, folks.

‘NO EXIT’: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Rehab. Group therapy time. Darby (Havana Rose Liu) is bored, or weary, or restless, or cynical, or all of the above. She’s in the middle of sharing that she’s 11 days sober and in her seventh rehab stint when she gets a phone call. Her mother had an aneurysm and is in the hospital. It’s a prickly development on two fronts: One, her myriad drug escapades have made her an unwelcome member of the family. And two, she not only can’t make any outgoing calls at this point in her stay, she’s not allowed to leave. Not even if her mother is close to death, apparently. That doesn’t stop Darby, though – she steals a fellow patient’s contraband cell phone, jimmies the janitor closet, steals some tools, runs out the door and, as the alarm blares, hotwires a car and is outta there.

Outta there, headlong into a nasty snowstorm derailing her long drive to Salt Lake City. The roads are closed, stranding her at a rest stop where a few others also pulled off to wait out the storm. There’s married couple Ed (Dennis Haysbert) and Sandi (Dale Dickey), a greasy squirrelly weasel named Lars (David Rysdahl), and Ash (Danny Ramirez), who’s asleep on a bench at first but seems to be an earnest and charming fellow when he’s awake. Cell service is nil in this remote location, of course, so maybe if Darby wanders around outside with her phone outstretched in front of her, she’ll get a bar and be able to respond to the text from her sister saying Darby isn’t wanted at the hospital with Mom, because she’ll only make it worse. It stings.

Just as we’re wondering, hey, is this movie a character melodrama or what, a thump and a muffled squeal come from inside a parked van. Darby peers in and there’s a little girl (Mila Harris) bound and gagged with duct tape. She dials 911 and there’s no service and takes a photo of the license plate and texts it to the police but it doesn’t go through and did someone just look out the rest stop window and spot her? UGH. She jimmies the door and comforts the girl then goes back inside the rest stop and plays a game of Bullshit with Ed, Sandi, Lars and Ash, masking her anxiety, frequently glancing out the window at the van. Who’s the kidnapper? Is it the obvious guy or the nice guy or the chill older gent or his sweet wife? This is only the beginning, people, because it gets so much more bananas from here.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: No Exit takes an Agatha Christie-style mystery (Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile) and crosses it with a gruelingly violent suspense film like Jeremy Saulnier’s put-ya-through-the-meat-grinder-ers Green Room and Blue Ruin.

Performance Worth Watching: We just saw Liu in small roles in Mayday and The Sky is Everywhere, and here, she more than ably takes the lead, playing a young woman who fights to survive a journey through the ringer a la Uma Thurman in Kill Bill and Alison Lohman in Drag Me to Hell.

Memorable Dialogue: Ed and Sandi side-eye creepy Lars:

Ed: I don’t like that guy.

Sandi: Ed, you don’t know that guy.

Ed: I’ve known plenty of that guy. Weird little white boys with a chip on their shoulder.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: No Exit is a real nailbiter, a hair-raising, crazy-tense white-knuckler with several OH F— moments to keep us on our toes. Is hell other people for Darby? In this case, in this single-location thriller, absolutely. Power winds it tight, enough so we can push past some of its less-credible that’s-a-stretch plot developments and mostly stay in the moment, in its suspenseful grip. Even as we shout common-sense advice at the screen – you know, JUST SHOOT HIM ALREADY and DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE NAIL GUN, stuff like that – we remain invested in our protagonist’s attempts to rescue the girl and survive the ordeal.

And it sure is an ordeal, one that routinely escalates, takes a few ultraviolent turns and comes extremely close to being a sadistic bloodbath. But it’s inspiring to watch Liu grit her teeth and summon the resolve to find a path through a tangled psychological briar patch rife with the pitfalls of her recovery, scads of guilt and the desire to do the right thing in this situation even if it means having a gun pointed at her head. Despite Darby facing one damn thing after another – to the point where you just have to laugh to relieve the stress of watching this thing – we never feel divorced from her emotional journey. That’s the high-wire act that No Exit pulls off pretty damn well.

Our Call: You’ll find No Exit is full of surprises. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.

Stream No Exit on Hulu