Staying Alive

Ms. Spenser specifically asked to see No One Gets Out Alive (2021) because she's a fan of Adam Nevill, who wrote the novel that this is an adaptation of. Of course, she sort of prefers his short stories.

Cristina Rodio is an undocumented Mexican immigrant, working in a garment sweatshop in Cleveland. She finds a creepy old boarding house to live in. The landlord, Marc Menchaca, doesn't ask questions but does want first and last month's rent, which hits her savings very hard. There is only one other woman in the place, and she is quiet and hostile. Rodio hears crying coming from her room, but it isn't her. Also, there's a hulking man wandering around - Menchaca says it's his brother, who's sick.

Other than this creepiness, two things are troubling her: She needs papers, even if they are fake. Even her aunt and uncle, who live out in the suburbs, believe that she was born in Texas and don't want anything to do with illegals. The other thing is dreams and memories of her mother, who she nursed for years through a fatal illness. 

The other boarder moves out (or disappears?) and two Romanian prostitutes move in - Machaca is clearly taking the rent in trade. This ups the creepy to the point where she runs out, but she needs her deposit back. Machaca takes her back to the house to get it, and that's when the killing starts.

SPOILER, I guess. We get a home movie to do exposition on an archeological expedition in Mexico, which unearthed a box. The archeologist discovered that human sacrifices to the monster in the box restored health. Now Menchaca and his sick brother are feeding it the women who come to the boarding house. 

So big fights, running around, killing, and then the monster - supposedly an Aztec goddess associated with moths - and human sacrifice. But I have one serious complaint (also, big SPOILER): The monster design is ludicrous. It has a face covered with a fleshy membrane veil, two human arms for legs, with a vagina dentata between them to bite off the heads of the victims. I think the Aztecs had more class than that.

Actually, the movie is fine. It has the usual humans-are-the-real-monsters theme and it works. The setting is suitably creepy, and the scares are scary. I wish that the Aztec god aspect had gone a little deeper - none of the art direction really said ancient Mexico. The moths that flew around when something was about to happen were atmospheric, but didn't do much. And that monster, ooh.

Also, someone does get out alive. I can actually imagine a sequel.