One of the few areas that improved upon the book was in the movie’s score by Marco Beltrami and Miles Hankins. That might seem like odd praise for a story that takes place primarily is one bleak location, but the cinematography consistently works to enhance the claustrophobic fear marinating within its setting. Each one plays a part that never allows you be comfortable or certain about who they are or what they’re capable of–even the good ones.įrom a production standpoint, everything looks great. That being said, the entire cast is as good as any fan of the book could ask for. In fact, the character’s humanity makes the fear they instill even worse after their sociopathic walls are tested as the night’s events escalate into chaos. Once again, I can’t really say who that is (to preserve the mystery), but the character is absolutely terrifying without ever devolving into a supervillain territory.

Her brilliant performance is only rivaled by the film’s primary antagonist. Even when it involved the parts I didn’t like, Liu sold those additional aspects of Darby’s backstory to create a tragically flawed and believable hero. I wasn’t a huge fan of the way they changed Darby’s backstory into her being a drug addict (more on that in a bit), but Hannah Rose Liu portrays the character brilliantly. Luckily, this is one area where the film absolutely nailed it.

As great as No Exit‘s premise is, it can’t work without the characters.

No exit book cover