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An undocumented immigrant is in her rundown apartment alone trying to call family back home. At least, she thinks she’s alone. She's not. She’s the first on-screen victim in a long line of them in Santiago Menghini ’s horror feature debut “No One Gets Out Alive.” 

Ambar ( Cristina Rodlo ) takes the space in a dilapidated Cleveland boardinghouse not knowing what’s transpired there before. Soon, she also starts to hear screams and disembodied voices. Ghostly strangers appear throughout the old house. But like the movie’s first victim and the other boarders in the home, Ambar is undocumented. She’s unable to call the police for fear of deportation or find other resources that may be closed off to non-citizens. Escaping the haunted house is a dangerous bid to survive. 

Based on Adam Nevill's novel, Menghini’s “No One Gets Out Alive” explores the real-life horror of how undocumented immigrants are exploited using a conventional horror movie construct. Ambar is haunted by the death of her ailing mother in a hospital scene we see revisited multiple times throughout the film. Then there’s the waking nightmare of navigating a sweatshop and other immigrants looking to take advantage of her naïveté. That’s before we get to the suspicious owners of a boarding house who prey on young immigrant women like Ambar. Red ( Marc Menchaca ) and his even more intimidating brother Becker ( David Figlioli ) make for great stoic villains, too stone-faced to betray their true intentions, even if Ambar has a bad feeling about them both. The brothers and the home share a grisly backstory, one rooted in movies like “The Living Idol” or “The Mummy,” where explorers unearth a cursed object that then has to be dealt with. Ambar’s one chance at finding a friendly face in Cleveland belongs to a distant cousin, Beto ( David Barrera ). However, his storyline shows there may be some limits to the kindness of Stateside families who have created lives for themselves far away from their families abroad. 

“No One Gets Out Alive” builds its suspense through scares both real and supernatural. While I’m less satisfied with its ultimate execution, Jon Croker and Fernanda Coppel's script has a lot going in its favor. The filmmakers make a point to show undocumented immigrants from different countries, not just Spanish-speaking ones, and set the story in a place faraway from giant coastal cities that usually host these stories. It’s a subtle acknowledgement of the widespread experiences in the immigrant community without necessarily making it a plot point or detracting from the movie’s ominous tone.  

One of the movie’s biggest stumbling blocks comes at the end when the monster behind the violence appears. The ultimate creep of “No One Gets Out Alive” looks silly, enough so that it took me out of the movie and made me laugh. Skip the rest of this paragraph if you want to see it for yourself, but at the film’s climactic high point, a being emerges from the ominous looking box with swole beefy arms-for-legs, a face that looks hidden under a shroud, a thick amphibian-like body and thinner almost T-rex-sized arms with human-like hands meant to grab a victim’s head before decapitating it with a mouth full of teeth near the bottom of its body. More plainly, it looks like a vagina dentata. The perplexing amalgamation of human parts and animal-like skin deflates much of the suspense the movie had shored up. 

Even if everything doesn’t quite work, “No One Gets Out Alive” has a good premise and solid performances from Rodlo and her castmates to sell an audience on the spooky tale. It’s enjoyable enough to ring this year’s spooky season of horror movie binges and rewatches. However, not everything that goes bump in the night deserves to be seen or explained, and I wish that was one mystery “No One Gets Out Alive” kept for itself. 

Now playing on Netflix.

Monica Castillo

Monica Castillo is a critic, journalist, programmer, and curator based in New York City. She is the Senior Film Programmer at the Jacob Burns Film Center and a contributor to  RogerEbert.com .

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No One Gets Out Alive (2021)

Cristina Rodlo as Ambar

Marc Menchaca as Red

Victoria Alcock

David Barrera as Beto

Joana Borja as Simona

David Figlioli as Becker

Mitchell Mullen as Rilles

• Santiago Menghini

Writer (novel)

• Adam Nevill

Writer (story by)

• Fernanda Coppel

Cinematographer

• Stephen Murphy
• Mark Korven

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‘No One Gets Out Alive’ Review: Seeking Shelter, Finding Terror

In this horror movie on Netflix, an immigrant in Cleveland moves into a sinister boardinghouse.

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By Ben Kenigsberg

When Ambar (Cristina Rodlo) arrives in Cleveland after being smuggled into the United States, she needs a place to stay that won’t ask questions. So she turns to an all-female boardinghouse with the basic amenities: apparitions. Flickering lights. A live-in landlord and the creepy, bulked-up brother he neglected to mention. Strange sounds emanating from the plumbing.

“No One Gets Out Alive,” directed by Santiago Menghini, is now circling the drain on Netflix , where few will watch it intentionally and those who never find it won’t be missing much. Even seeing it, in a literal sense, is difficult: The imagery crosses the line that separates “atmospherically dark” from “murk.”

Directed by Santiago Menghini, whose background in visual effects has not helped him mount convincing ones here, the movie grafts standard horror-movie tropes onto a portrait of the struggles of undocumented immigrants in America. Ambar, who has a grueling job as a garment worker and is desperate to cobble together money for a fake I.D., has no nowhere to go but a haunted house.

Still, the movie has not bothered to connect its ideas. While explanations in horror are overrated, not one but two prologues — the first styled as 8-millimeter footage shot in Mexico in 1963, the second depicting the demise of a pre-Ambar boarder — go unaddressed in any meaningful way. Nor does the movie provide more than a cursory reason for why what it implies are ancient Meso-American rituals are being practiced in a Cleveland basement.

No One Gets Out Alive Rated R. Violence and gore. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

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No one gets out alive, common sense media reviewers.

Book-based tale has graphic violence, supernatural horror.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

No positive messages in supernatural horror movie.

Ambar is trying to make a better life for herself

Lead character is a Latina from Mexico who has ent

Supernatural horror violence throughout. Sounds of

Vague insinuations that two immigrant women living

"Motherf--ker" said once in Spanish. "F--k" used a

Cigarette smoking Wine drinking at dinner. Martini

Parents need to know that No One Gets Out Alive is a 2021 horror movie in which an undocumented immigrant enters a supernatural nightmare after moving into a rundown boardinghouse in Cleveland. Besides the supernatural horror of ghostly and demonic visions and sounds, there are also scenes in which a large…

Positive Messages

Positive role models.

Ambar is trying to make a better life for herself by coming to the United States, and her struggle to find "The American Dream" doesn't sugarcoat the many challenges immigrants face as they try to begin a new life.

Diverse Representations

Lead character is a Latina from Mexico who has entered the United States as an illegal immigrant. She works with, and seems to befriend, other immigrant women from Africa and Romania.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Supernatural horror violence throughout. Sounds of women screaming echo through the boardinghouse where the lead character lives. A large man throws women around, forces a bottle of wine into the lead character's mouth, chains women to slabs of concrete in the basement of the boarding house, kills a young woman by throwing her down a stairwell. Lead character bludgeons a man to death with a spiky warclub, his head shown bloody and bashed in. Lead character attacks another man with the warclub, slicing his chest before chaining him to the concrete slab in the basement, where he's decapitated by a demon. Uncle of lead character beaten by villain outside the door of lead character's room in the rooming house; blood and a tooth shown going underneath the door as the sounds of the man being violently beaten reverberate. Villain stomps on lead character's ankle, breaking it.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Vague insinuations that two immigrant women living in the boarding house are having sex for money and possibly free rent.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Motherf--ker" said once in Spanish. "F--k" used a few times. Also: "s--t," "a--hole" and "Jesus Christ."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Cigarette smoking Wine drinking at dinner. Martini drinking in a bar.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that No One Gets Out Alive is a 2021 horror movie in which an undocumented immigrant enters a supernatural nightmare after moving into a rundown boardinghouse in Cleveland. Besides the supernatural horror of ghostly and demonic visions and sounds, there are also scenes in which a large man brutally assaults women that may be triggering for some viewers. In one scene, the lead character is grabbed in the face by a large man and forced to open her mouth to drink from a bottle of wine. Women are thrown into walls, a woman is stomped in the ankle, resulting in breakage, and another woman is thrown down a stairwell and killed. Women are shown chained up in a room before being chained to a slab of concrete in the boardinghouse basement, where they're to be sacrifices to a demon. Characters are bludgeoned to death with a spiky warclub, which is bloody and graphic. Character decapitated by a demon. The lead character hears her uncle getting beaten on the other side of her door, then sees blood and a knocked-out tooth flow in from beneath the door. Knife to throat. Infrequent profanity, including "motherf--ker" said in Spanish and "f--k" and "s--t." Cigarette smoking and drinking. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (2)
• Kids say (4)

Based on 2 parent reviews

NO sex, YES violence. I think the other reviewers were watching the wrong movie. There's not even mentions of sex and drugs.

Creepy horror movie with interesting monster, what's the story.

In NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE, Ambar (Cristina Rodlo) has arrived in Cleveland from Mexico after the death of her mother to cancer. She's an undocumented immigrant who finds a job working a sewing machine in a sweatshop, but without an ID, her options for finding a place to live are extremely limited. After she must leave the motel where she has been staying, she sees an ad on the bulletin board where she works advertising a room in a rooming house. Upon arrival, she meets Red ( Marc Menchaca ), who says he has just recently bought the place, and is in the process of fixing it up. It's a dingy building, and the lights seem to be constantly flickering, but without other options, Ambar agrees to move in, and pays Red the first month's rent. As Ambar struggles to get a fake ID that will help her find a better job and tries to get used to the harsh Cleveland winters, she begins to hear in her room what sounds like the disturbing sounds of women screaming. She also has an unpleasant encounter with Red's brother Becker. She also starts having nightmares about those around her, her mother, and ghosts that seem to haunt the rooming house. Ambar meets others who live in the rooming house -- all immigrant women -- and as she snoops around Red's study, she discovers mysterious relics and begins to learn some disturbing truths about Red and Becker's father. As Ambar grows increasingly horrified by her living situation, she decides to move out, and demands to get her deposit back from Red, but when she returns to the boardinghouse, she soon begins to realize the extent of Becker's evil, Red's complicity in it, and the unholy terror that exists in the basement and its demand for sacrifice.

Is It Any Good?

This is a supernatural horror movie with very real violence perpetrated on undocumented female immigrants. Based on a novel, No One Gets Out Alive is at its best when it depicts the all-too-real nightmare of women who are undocumented immigrants trying to survive in contemporary America. The struggles Ambar faces in attaining an ID that will help her get a better job than the sweatshop job she currently works, of keeping the sweatshop job she has, of finding a place to live, of being almost completely alone in a strange and harsh new environment -- these scenes are among the most powerful and engaging. That helplessness comes through, and often feels more frightening than the ghostly apparitions popping up around the shabby Cleveland boardinghouse where Ambar takes up residence and backstory of archeologists gone mad.

Indeed, the violence perpetrated against Ambar and the other immigrant women living in the boardinghouse is so graphic and disturbing, it makes the later scenes of a demon-in-a-box hungry for human sacrifice tame, or even ludicrous, by comparison to the assault that went on in the scenes prior to the big reveals of Act Three. The acting is very good across the board, but the story itself, as disturbingly grisly as some of the more realistic violence is, becomes a bit of a standard-grade haunted house story, with the obligatory Supernatural Forces Unleashed at some point in the past that are lurking in the Mysterious and Creepy Basement. It ends how it ends, but it's almost a foregone conclusion that what will stay with viewers long after watching this isn't the proverbial big reveal, but the gruesome violence that happened in the scenes leading up to it.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about movies based on novels, like No One Gets Out Alive . What would be the challenges in adapting a novel into a movie? What are some examples of good movies based on books?

While the movie has its share of supernatural elements, how does the movie try to realistically depict the daunting challenges immigrants, particularly undocumented immigrants, face when coming to America?

How does the sense of helplessness these immigrant women already feel heighten the terror in the movie? Was the violence, supernatural or not, intended to reflect that helplessness, or did it seem unnecessarily graphic? Why?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : September 29, 2021
• Cast : Cristina Rodlo , Marc Menchaca , David Figlioli
• Director : Santiago Menghini
• Inclusion Information : Latino actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Horror
• Topics : Book Characters , Brothers and Sisters
• Run time : 85 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : Some strong violence, grisly images, and language.
• Last updated : February 28, 2022

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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No One Gets Out Alive review and ending explained: We need to talk about Netflix’s new thriller

This immigrant story had all the ingredients to be successful. What happened?

The best horror movies tap into very human fears: swimming in deep water, taking a shower in a seedy hotel, or answering a strange phone call . But the most chilling movies tap into an even deeper fear: that of the unknown.

What happens when you leave everything you know in life behind to build something new?

Netflix’s first addition to its Halloween line-up is No One Gets Out Alive , a horror story that follows young Ambar (Cristina Rodlo), an undocumented immigrant, as she tries to secure a life in a new country while navigating her terrible job and skeevy landlord.

No One Gets Out Alive should work. All the hallmarks of a great horror film are there. A talented young actress pouring her heart into the starring role; writing and producing partners like motion-capture juggernaut Andy Serkis; and a focus on illegal immigration, a hot-button topic in today’s politically polarized world, all should have added up to something special.

And yet, there isn’t enough momentum in director Santiago Menghini’s approach for the story to get started. After two separate prologues, one establishing the backstory of Ambar and another introducing the house she’s about to inhabit, the film can’t seem to get past setting its status quo.

Slow-burn spooks can be torturous in stories like these, but the temperature never gets above lukewarm in No One Gets Out Alive . Ambar is terrified by noises she hears in her room but is equally terrified by the prospect of not securing falsified papers that establish citizenship. Her past looms in haunting hallucinations, but it’s hard to tell if those are just stylized flashbacks to trauma or actual visions.

Probably the biggest surprise is the fact that — yes — some people do in fact get out alive, which at a certain point just feels like false advertising.

What Went Wrong?

Red (Marc Menchaca) in No One Gets Out Alive .

Stories of immigration are increasingly popular in horror. 2020’s His House followed a young couple as they emigrated to the United Kingdom from South Sudan and discovered one vestige of their former life had followed them.

That story, by writer-director Remi Weekes, worked because the threat wasn’t a less-than-welcoming country so much as a more personal supernatural menace. Ambar faces the dangers in her new home not due to anything about her point of origin but because she was in the wrong house at the wrong time. Sure, her lack of resources meant she couldn’t escape, but it’s not her fault she was in danger.

Horror has to, in some way, make us confront parts of ourselves. To paraphrase William Shakespeare, the horror is not in haunted houses, but in ourselves.

No One Gets Out Alive ending, explained

Ambar scopes out her house after hearing distant screams.

Warning! Spoilers ahead for No One Gets Out Alive !

I already spoiled that the title of this film is misleading, but here’s everything you need to know for this film’s confusing ending.

The home Ambar moves into is owned by two brothers, Red (Marc Menchaca) and Becker (David Figlioli), who secretly are replicating ancient Mesoamerican ritual killings to heal one brother’s undisclosed illness. In their basement lies a stone box, containing a monster that heals them through a sacrifice.

In a dream sequence, Ambar fantasizes about being rescued from the clutches of these malevolent men by her cousin Beto (David Barrera). Then, she dreams of smothering her dying mother with a pillow, which is enough of a sacrifice to allow her a bid at freedom. However, she is seriously injured in a fight with Becker and takes out Red, sacrificing him to the monster.

Given this sacrifice, Ambar’s injury is healed, and she finally has the opportunity to seek out the American dream she so desired.

No One Gets Out Alive is now streaming on Netflix.

• Science Fiction

‘No One Gets Out Alive’ Review: The Rates Are Cheap, but Checkout’s a Killer at This Boardinghouse

A visually atmospheric if not entirely satisfying Netflix thriller finds supernatural horror greeting a Mexican émigré to Cleveland.

By Dennis Harvey

Dennis Harvey

Film Critic

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English horror novelist Adam Nevill’s 2011 “The Ritual” was made into an atmospheric outdoor supernatural opus four years ago by “The Night House” director David Bruckner. Now that author’s subsequent “No One Gets Out Alive” gets similar treatment — though this tale takes place almost entirely indoors — via Montreal-based VFX artist and producer Santiago Menghini ’s feature directorial debut. Switching locale from the book’s Birmingham to Cleveland, the mostly Romania-shot thriller still somehow succeeds primarily in the vividness of its physical environ, an impressively decrepit boardinghouse that seems to swallow up vulnerable young women whole.

Not a slam-dunk in terms of either scariness or storytelling, this Netflix joint nonetheless should get viewers’ Halloween countdown off to a solid start with its handsome aesthetics, not to mention a notably grotesque creature design.

The pre-title fate of one young female stray (Joana Borja) assures us that tenancy is alarmingly short-lived at an imposing three-story Cleveland residence whose decor looks like it hasn’t changed since the 1930s — or been cleaned since the 1970s. Yet here is where Ambar ( Cristina Rodlo of series “Too Old to Die Young” and “The Terror”) lands, for lack of other options. She’d put her life on hold for several years to care for a terminally ill mother, and now has traveled north from Mexico to start anew. But she lacks a green card, so for the time being she’s stuck working at a sweatshop-type operation. She must also find new accommodations when her first landlord demands government-issued ID for any continued stay.

The dank, once-elegant building that live-in manager Red ( Marc Menchaca ) claims new owners will renovate is on the creepy side. But he asks no questions, and it’s cheap, so Ambar moves in. Despite the paucity of other renters, however, she soon hears odd noises, including weeping and cries. Eventually she even sees people — ones who aren’t actually there but some kind of institutional ghost-memories. They suggest very bad things happen here, particularly in the ominously sealed-off basement. But just when Ambar grows frightened enough to flee, a co-worker absconds with the little money she’s got, and her sole local relative (David Barrera) is out of town.

Popular on Variety

This degree of crisis arrives around midpoint, leaving “No One” another 40 minutes or so to spring further surprises — which include the hitherto-obscured household dominance of Red’s unpleasant brother Becker (David Figlioli). Still, the plot feels somewhat underdeveloped, with peril evident but its cause murky. There is some hinting at imported pagan rites, and considerably more than hinting in terms of the monster and/or deity these siblings serve.

Creature designer Keith Thompson, likewise credited on “The Ritual,” does come up with something quite alarming, if perhaps more bizarre than scary. But just what that thing is, how it got here and what powers it possesses or bestows remain cloudy at best. The film apparently only makes use of the long novel’s first half, omitting what one must presume are the explanatory parts later on. In narrative terms, the end result comes off not so much deliberately cryptic as simply a bit undercooked.

Still, “No One” succeeds in meaningfully tethering the plight of the undocumented immigrant to a genre fiction, sans preachiness. (The book’s heroine is a native Brit whose starting handicaps lie more in the realm of classist and sexist exploitation.) Their characters respectively stronger and weaker than we first perceive, Rodlo and Menchaca bring engaging conviction to the only two roles with more than one dimension here. Supporting parts are all much more constrained but also deftly filled.

While some exterior footage was filmed in Cleveland, the production’s majority was shot in Bucharest. There, production designer Christopher Richmond and DP Stephen Murphy eke considerable musty ambience from interiors of attractively old-fashioned if unsanitary detailing, bathed in queasily pretty lighting hues of greenish blue.

Reviewed online, San Francisco, Sept. 28, 2021. MPAA rating: R. Running time: 86 MIN.

• Production: A Netflix release of a Netflix presentation of an Imaginarium production. Producers: Jonathan Cavendish, Will Tennant. Executive producers: Philip Robertson, David Bruckner, Andy Serkis, Adam Nevill, Jon Croker. Co-producer: Patricia Poienaru.
• Crew: Director: Santiago Menghini. Screenplay: Jon Croker, Fernanda Coppel; story by Croker, from the novel by Adam Nevill. Camera: Stephen Murphy. Editor: Mark Towns. Music: Mark Korven.
• With: Cristina Rodlo, Marc Menchaca, David Figlioli, David Barrera, Moronke Akinola, Mitchell Mullen, Claudia Coulter, Teresa Banham, Alejandro Akara, Cosima Stratan, Ilinca Neacsu, Joana Borja. (English, Spanish dialogue.)

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Summary Ambar is an immigrant in search of the American dream, but when she's forced to take a room in a boarding house, she finds herself in a nightmare she can't escape.

Directed By : Santiago Menghini

Written By : Jon Croker, Fernanda Coppel, Adam Nevill

Where to Watch

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘No One Gets Out Alive’ on Netflix, a Generically Creepy Haunted House Flick

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Every Wednesday until the ’Ween, Netflix will drop a new scary flick, and this week it’s No One Gets Out Alive , which seems to be a variation on the haunted-house template. It’s Santiago Menghini’s directorial debut, adapted from the novel of the same name by Adam Nevill , and boasts Andy Serkis as an executive producer. Will it be a Hallowinner or just a Hallowiener? Let’s find out.

NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Scratchy old film footage from 1963 shows us ancient artifacts being unearthed in Mexico, including mummy-ish skeletons and a creepy stone box. The priceless stuff is whisked off to America, possibly by Hobby Lobby, but we can’t be certain. Perhaps improbably, it ends up in the basement of an old gothic manse in modern-day Cleveland. A woman lives there, and the place needs a handyman, a good electrician, a little attention by an interior decorator and considering what happens to this woman, probably an exorcist. The lights flicker and go out, harbinger butterflies appear, something leaves ghostly footprints on the hardwood and she emits a scream as she’s SNATCHED! by a glowing-eyed ghoul. We’ll never see her again. The movie has only one use for her, and that’s to establish that serious ghost shit is going on in this house.

Then we meet Ambar (Cristina Rodlo). She jumps out of a shipping container, freshly illegally immigrated from Mexico. She gets a job in a textile factory, but needs a place to live. An ad on a bulletin board reads, BIG UGLY DUMP OF A MANSION WITH ROOMS TO LET — NOBODY HAS DIED HERE RECENTLY VIA SUPERNATURAL MEANS, PROMISE — WOMEN ONLY, or at least I assume that’s what it reads, because we don’t get a good look at it, although the WOMEN ONLY part is there for certain. A man named Red (Marc Menchaca) owns the joint. Why WOMEN ONLY, Red? You some kinda creep? Probably, but nobody asks this question, and Ambar isn’t in a position of power here. She has a little bit of cash, no ID and few options. She moves in. One corner of the bed rests on a box, but not that box. No, that box is elsewhere in the house. That box can’t just be sitting anywhere. It’s absolutely the type of box that needs to be inside an inverted pentagram with candles at the points or something.

Anyway, things are going perfectly OK for Ambar. The job is crappy and she’s treated like crap and her boss is a piece of crap, but she has a friend (Moronke Akinola) and a distant relative in the suburbs and a roof over her head. That roof is also over the head of that box, which begins appearing in her dreams about her mother, who was ill for a long time and recently passed. Sometimes Ambar seems to be in the presence of glowing-eyed ghouls, but she isn’t SNATCHED! yet. She hears crying from elsewhere in the house through the vents and once even from the shower drain, but it’s surely just one of the other tenants. She goes to investigate, and how do people in this type of movie investigate things? By walking… slowly… through… the… house… and… slowly… reaching… for… doorknobs. She finds a room with a book titled EARLY MESOAMERICAN RITUALS and an old reel-to-reel playing back a voice recording that goes, “(something something) ritual sacrifice (mumble mumble).” She lies in bed one night and a moth lands on the nightstand and she really mushes it, gets goop on her hand and everything. But a moment later it alights and flits off. If only ghost moths were your biggest concern here, Ambar. If only.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: No One Gets Out Alive seems like low-key Guillermo del Toro worship for an hour, then gets high-key about it in the final act. Think Crimson Peak or The Devil’s Backbone .

Performance Worth Watching: Ambar has minimal personality and character — we feel sad for her because her mother died, and concerned for her because she’s having a rough go as an undocumented immigrant. Rodlo isn’t asked to do much besides look worried and then look scared and then scream, but she does what she can to imbue the character with a little assured self-confidence.

Memorable Dialogue: “I know this house is kinda weird.” — Red deploys Defcon-1 level understatement

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: No One Gets Out Alive emphasizes moody atmospherics above all else — at the expense of character, theme and a plot that resolves itself in any meaningful or sensical way. Menghini spends an hour setting up bowling pins, then chucks wiffle balls at them. Random ghosts, Lepidoptera, bad dreams, EARLY MESOAMERICAN RITUALS and that box — neat, creepy, now what? The hows and whys and wherefores are lost to us. The final act has its moments, a payoff for the MPAA’s promise of “grisly images” and a reveal that tries to out-del Toro del Toro. It doesn’t. I’m pretty sure no one can. Nice try; you at least have to admire the effort.

But that doesn’t resolve the film’s diversion from suggestion to outright randomness. Too many films explain things point blank; this one is the polar opposite. Thematically, is it trying to say something about the immigrant experience? (Hey, guess what — it’s difficult.) About the psychic baggage we carry around with us, no matter where we go — you know, big things in small boxes? There’s a feed-the-beast metaphor lurking in the shadows here, I guess, if you’re feeling charitable. But it all comes down to one thing: You don’t want to know what’s in that box. That’s also a damn flimsy thing to hang a feature-length movie on.

Our Call: The verdict: Hallowiener. No One Gets Out Alive has a moment or two, but it never distinguishes itself among the many, many (many!) movies of its ilk. SKIP IT.

Will you stream or skip the creepy haunted house flick #NoOneGetsOutAlive on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) October 1, 2021

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba .

Stream  No One Gets Out Alive on Netflix

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No One Gets Out Alive Review: Great Netflix Horror Film Finds Terror in Poverty

It's the tiny indignities that are really scary

If you like tense psychological horror that is strikingly relatable one minute, then a swirl of supernatural surrealism the next, then the latest Netflix Original, No One Gets Out Alive , is for you. That is assuming, of course, that you don't work for the Cleveland Tourism Board. This movie makes the Rust Belt city look like a real dump, and that's before otherworldly demons start killing people.   

After a spooky prelude of weird archeology footage and an eerie assault on a frightened young woman, we meet our heroine, a Latin American immigrant named Ambar ( Cristina Rodlo ). She's got a crummy job in a questionable sweatshop and has just found lodging in a dilapidated-but-deliciously-photogenic apartment building in a shoddy part of town.  

The Best Movies on Netflix to Watch Right Now (September 2021)

With its Art Nouveau skylight and dark wood interior, this place just needs some investment to become a trendy boutique hotel. For now, though, the owner, Red (Marc Menchaca), is content to take cash up front with no questions asked and let women only stay, with no guests after 9 p.m. If you start hearing weird sounds or having visions, though, it's nothing, absolutely nothing, and stop asking questions. 

Ambar, still reeling from the death of her mother back home after a protracted illness, is in dire need of some very specific false ID papers. She has a distant cousin she hardly knows (David Barrera) who can get her a decent job, but she's lied to him and said she was born in Texas. Ambar's co-worker Kinsie (a marvelous Moronke Akinole) has a connection who can make it happen, but is asking for way more money than Ambar has, especially since she put down a month's deposit for the apartment. Taking a gamble on human kindness doesn't go so well, and asking Red for her deposit back is a similar hurdle. 

Cristina Rodlo, No One Gets Out Alive

No One Gets Out Alive  is a strong first feature from director Santiago Menghini, whose background is in special effects. It is based on a book by British novelist Adam Neville, and is most impressive with the specifics of how someone living on the fringes can get beaten down by a multitude of tiny indignities. Rare is the movie that lingers on a taxi meter's swift climb, but when someone is broke, that's what is top of mind.  

There's a good 30 minutes until we're faced with any too common horror tropes (why is there always a tape of incantation?) but things do pay off in a pretty bonkers conclusion that is gory, nerve-wracking, and cathartic.  

A lot of that is due to Rodlo, whose expressions of frustration and anguish are sympathetic, and her eventual plunge into pure fear is quite gripping. There's a lot about the lore to this haunted house saga that isn't succinctly explained -- and some may consider that a detriment -- but for me it meant that, by the end, I really didn't know what the heck was going to happen yet. So when Ambar is screaming her head off in terror, I was right there with her. 

There's not a lot that's upbeat in No One Gets Out Alive (I mean, the title ought to tell you that), but as a small-budget first feature, there's much here to recommend. Week-to-week there are a great deal of new horror options on the streaming services; this is one of the better ones to appear in some time.  

TV Guide rating: 3.5/5

No One Gets Out Alive is now on Netflix.

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No One Gets Out Alive – Netflix Review (3/5)

Posted by Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard | Sep 29, 2021 | 4 minutes

NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE on Netflix is a horror movie with a slow pace at first, but a very strong ending. The cast features Cristina Rodlo in the lead with the always amazing Marc Menchaca in a key role. Read our full  No One Gets Out Alive movie review here!

NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE is a new Netflix horror movie. You do need to prepare for a slower pace during the first two acts. Sure, there are moments of horror, but not just in the classic “horror movie way”. We’re also dealing with some social commentary and real-life horror, which is just as scary.

Also, while I did find parts of this Netflix horror movie to be too slow at times, the ending definitely makes it worth checking out. With a runtime of just 85 minutes, it is ultimately very much worth your time.

Continue reading our No One Gets Out Alive movie review below.

A small but strong cast

The absolute star of No One Gets Out Alive  on Netflix is Cristina Rodlo as Ambar. She is trying to do everything she can in order to build a life in the US. A hard worker, she keeps her head down and treats people right. Cristina Rodlo ( The Terror season 2) delivers a strong and heartfelt portrayal of an immigrant fighting for her place in a new country.

In another key role, we see Marc Menchaca who has quickly become an absolute favorite of mine. He is  always  brilliant in every single thing he does. You may know him from the Netflix series Ozark , the HBO adaptation of Stephen King’s The Outsider , or season 2 of The Sinner .

Or maybe from smaller genre movies such as Alone  (2020) and  Every Time I Die (2019).

YOU MIGHT LIKE Our review of the thriller  Every Time I Die  (2019) which offers brilliant twists and turns >

Also part of the cast in a key role is David Figlioli ( Penny Dreadful: City of Angels ). With his height and strong features, he seems made for horror movies.

In one of the smaller roles, you’ll see Cosmina Stratan as another immigrant struggling to make it in the US. Cosmina Stratan was also in the Danish horror movie  Shelley  (2016) . In that movie, she left such an impact that I immediately recognized her in No One Gets Out Alive . With that in mind, her role in this new Netflix horror movie was way too little.

The ending of  No One Gets Out Alive on Netflix

Because I am not as happy with this new Netflix movie as I hoped, I wanted to mention that the  No One Gets Out Alive  ending was actually really good. For horror fans, there are all kinds of supernatural elements that should satisfy most.

Talking about anything supernatural is hardly a spoiler for this movie since it’s obvious very early on. Sure, our main protagonist, Ambar (Cristina Rodlo), has nightmares. However, there are also people with shining eyes that appear all over the place, which is a pretty big indicator of something supernatural.

Also, quite a lot of blood will ultimately be flowing in this movie. Just sit through the slower parts and take in the story (and very important real-world issues covered). Then prepare for an ending that will be full-blown horror!

Watch  No One Gets Out Alive  on Netflix

Santiago Manghini is the director of  No One Gets Out Alive . The story was written by Jon Croker who adapted the story from the novel by Adam Nevill. The story was moved from the UK to be set in the US and have a Mexican immigrant as the main character. Adam Nevill also wrote the novel that was adapted into the rather amazing Netflix movie The Ritual  (2017).

DO NOT MISS OUT ON The Netflix horror thriller  The Ritual  (2017) which we gave a top rating here >

The screenplay for  No One Gets Out Alive  was written by Jon Croker and Fernanda Coppel. This is the first feature film for Fernanda Coppel. She previously worked on some major TV series including How to Get Away with Murder  and  Queen of the South .

Jon Croker has worked on various feature films. From The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death  to Paddington 2.

I wish I could give  No One gets Out Alive  a much better and bigger endorsement than I feel comfortable with. Unfortunately, it felt too long even though it is only 85 minutes long. Still, the horror elements do work very well and the final third is actually very strong.

In other words, do check it out but be ready for a slow start that builds into a big finale!

No One Gets Out Alive  is out on Netflix from September 29, 2021.

Director: Santiago Menghini Writers: Jon Croker, Fernanda Coppel (Based on the Novel No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill) Cast: Cristina Rodlo, Marc Menchaca, David Figlioli, Cosmina Stratan, Ilinca Neacşu, Victoria Alcock, Phil Robertson, Moronke Akinola, Vala Noren

Ambar (Cristina Rodlo) is embarking on her American Dream after years spent dutifully tending to her terminally ill mother in Mexico. She arrives in Cleveland illegally, with very little money and unsuitable clothing for what’s expected to be the coldest winter on record. After finding cash-in-hand work at a local garment factory, she rents the cheapest room available from Red (Marc Menchaca) in a near derelict boarding house. Kept awake by the other tenants’ sobbing, disturbing nightmares and strange unearthly noises echoing from the basement, Ambar begins to wonder exactly who – or what – lives inside the house with them. Soon it becomes clear that Ambar has walked into a trap, one where she will soon be introduced to the evil that has been lurking in the basement. Ambar must fight to escape her living nightmare, but in a house where no one listens to the screams, will she ever get out alive?

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Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard

I write reviews and recaps on Heaven of Horror. And yes, it does happen that I find myself screaming, when watching a good horror movie. I love psychological horror, survival horror and kick-ass women. Also, I have a huge soft spot for a good horror-comedy. Oh yeah, and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies, so I will immediately think less of any movie, where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors). Fortunately, horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy. And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones. Go figure!

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'No One Gets Out Alive' Review: A bit too direct

Santiago menghini’s 'no one gets out alive' is an immigration horror tale that backloads most of the film's intrigue..

What to Watch Verdict

'No One Gets Out Alive' stacks its most horrific turns for a finale swerve that might as well be the whole movie — except it isn't, and the preceding narrative is noticeably less engaging.

Cristina Rodlo does her job

I like what we see at the end

The unknown looms like a threat

It's rather plodding

Haunts are underwhelming

Feels hinged on a payoff that overtakes importance

Netflix ’s expansion of their unofficial Adam Nevill cinematic universe takes a slight step backward with Santiago Menghini’s No One Gets Out Alive . While David Bruckner’s adaptation of Nevill’s The Ritual showed the writer's work could illuminate the screen with cultist frights and magnificent creatures, No One Gets Out Alive is a more condensed, less fulfilling horror experience. 

Jon Croker and Fernanda Coppel's screenplay favors urban Cleveland dilapidation and the sacrifices made by immigrants in search of the American dream. It’s a companion to films like Culture Shock and Most Beautiful Island , except the unification of demonic supernatural dread and commonplace outsider oppression lets neither thrive. Imagine Clive Barker and Mike Flanagan in the broadest strokes, but with barely half the visionary wherewithal.

Mexican Ambar (Cristina Rodlo) crosses the Southern United States border and makes her way toward Ohio, where her relative Beto (David Barrera) has successfully built his affluent life. Ambar isn’t flush with cash nor possesses identification and can only afford a rundown studio in Red’s (Marc Menchaca) women-only housing unit. It’s not much, but there's no alternative option until Ambar interviews for a better job. Hopefully she figures out her plan soon because terrified cries from the basement and hallucinations of past tenants who vanished as per Red’s insistence start to suggest Ambar is unsafe in her current accommodations.

The horrors of No One Gets Out Alive stem from a flimsy piece of documentation that Ambar does not possess — without ID, she cannot embrace America’s infinite dreams. I mention Culture Shock and Most Beautiful Island because, like No One Gets Out Alive , backstories revolve around women who flee what they believe as unlivable circumstances for American promises of open doors for huddled masses. Instead, the “Ambars” of each story are chewed raw and spat out by domestic systems oiled to exploit, churn through and abuse under the guise of stars-and-stripes prosperity. The horrors of an uncaring government come to light as Ambar — like so many — takes matters into their own hands, and Menghini unfilters that experience as Ambar breaks to Red’s will or avoids police interjection out of fears of deportation.

Inside Red’s makeshift apartment complex that stands four or five stories tall, the glowy beads of shadow-contrast eyes represent souls who the manor has devoured. No One Gets Out Alive is named appropriately and doesn’t conceal any narrative intentions — Ambar awakes to ghost footprints, undead quarrels and human screams through outdated iron ventilation systems between floors. Red’s co-caretaker and brother Becker (David Figlioli) is introduced as a midnight lurker who slams his head against immovable objects and most certainly provides a threat to Ambar or other undocumented, foreign women who seem peculiarly targeted. The foundation is laid for altruism to be revealed as another architectural death trap. Still, the scares themselves are a wee bit timid as Ambar appears more caught in the middle of paranormal squabbles. 

Rodlo embraces more performative depth in Ambar’s traumatic memories as a daughter who stayed by her mother’s side until illness claimed another victim. Ambar is whisked in dreamlands to the elder matriarch’s hospital bed, where silky hair caresses and pleas to “stay longer” distract Ambar from the house’s lurking horrors. What’s inside a ritualistically decorative box? Why is there an off-limits locked basement door? What does Becker’s chanting in tongues mean?

We’re locked within Red’s house for the lion’s share of the film’s duration, as Ambar interacts with minimal supporting characters — two more renters, a protective Beto — making it feel more like a short elongated to feature-length. There aren't enough overtaking chills or time spent enveloped in the film’s wilder, imaginative horrors that crawl forth from the ancient holder that Becker seems to worship — what’s present works but begs for either more or less.

Maybe that’s where I’m left underwhelmed by No One Gets Out Alive , which seems narratively mapped and cared for as a precursor to grander universe plans. Any snarling special effects are saved for later reveals; what Ambar confirms in those last frames as she faces the world beyond sparks an enthusiasm that’s not apparent until closing time. 

Rodlo carries scene after scene that charts a trajectory without much suspense or surprises, whether that’s badgering her underpaying seamstress boss or poking around Red’s private study and basement door framed with claw scratches. It’s a haunted movie that’s just not overwhelmingly haunting or impactful.

No One Gets Out Alive is still a proficiently moody upturn of the American dream, from a perspective that’s privy to all the patriotic panic and supremacy-induced agony. If its intentions are to hint at a connection between No One Gets Out Alive and The Ritual , I’d understand landmark choices, but the relenting ambiguity does weaken an overall procession of muted spooks. Spoilers are a nuisance here because something even Guillermo del Toro would appreciate bears no mention in this review. All I can confidently say is go in expecting the grand finale as a selling point, and hope the ensuing navigation of immigration woes provides enough social terror worth your attention and appropriate distress.

No One Gets Out Alive is now available to stream on Netflix.

Matt Donato is a Rotten Tomatoes approved film critic who stays up too late typing words for What To Watch, IGN, Paste, Bloody Disgusting, Fangoria and countless other publications. He is a member of Critics Choice and co-hosts a weekly livestream with Perri Nemiroff called the Merri Hour. You probably shouldn't feed him after midnight, just to be safe.

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No one gets out alive ending explained: what happened to ambar.

2021 Netflix horror No One Gets Out Alive has viewers asking what was inside the stone box and what became of Ambar, but it does provide answers?

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• No One Gets Out Alive 's monster consumes willing sacrifices, revealed during the ending of the surreal 2021 Netflix horror.
• Ambar gains regenerative powers by sacrificing tenants to the moth/spider monster.
• No named characters survive in the ending of No One Gets Out Alive , and thematically the movie explores immigrant exploitation realities.

The No One Gets Out Alive ending explained a monster that is almost impossible to describe. Bbased on the 2014 novel by The Ritual writer Adam Nevill, thehe tense psychological thriller follows protagonist Ambar, who arrives in America illegally and struggles to find a safe harbor upon arrival. Ambar’s troubles begin when she settles in a rickety, run-down house advertised for female tenants only. Although her landlord, Red, is a shifty character, the rent is cheap and Ambar is desperate. No One Gets Out Alive initially appears to be a haunted house movie, but soon takes a turn into more surreal territory.

Ambar (played in No One Gets Out Alive by Cristina Rodlo ) is forced to stay in the house as her housemates go missing. Ambar eventually escapes, only to be tempted back by Red. However, she discovers Red and his brother are sacrificing tenants to a creature in the basement that emerges from the stone box seen in her visions. The monster attempts to subdue Ambar with an immersive dream wherein she is taking care of her mother. The No One Gets Out Alive ending explained the surreal plot, though still left a few questions.

No One Gets Out Alive is available to stream on Netflix.

No One Gets Out Alive Movie Vs Book: Biggest Differences Explained

Itzpapalotl is a disturbing yet complex horror movie monster.

Interestingly, No One Gets Out Alive implies the monster only consumes willing sacrifices.

The monster inside the stone box isn't revealed until the No One Gets Out Alive ending. The creature from Ambar's vistions is a gigantic moth/spider hybrid, with long arms and human hands and a false face that hides its toothy mouth. No One Gets Out Alive is a socially conscious horror that gives viewers little insight into the nature of the creature. Red and Becker's now-deceased father recovered the box from ancient ruins in South America. Becker has been sacrificing people to the monster for years, including their abusive father and mother.

They lay victims on a stone altar before the huge creature emerges and bites off their heads. Interestingly, No One Gets Out Alive implies the monster only consumes willing sacrifices. When Ambar refuses to embrace the visions the monster induces, the beast returns to its mysterious box, no longer a threat to her.

Clarity and exposition around the monster, its desires, and how it works were in far shorter supply in the movie than No One Gets Out Aliv e's jump scares, but while the script doesn’t do a lot to explain the monster’s origins or nature, the finale does make it clear why Becker and Red sacrifice people to the beast.

Ambar Learns The No One Gets Out Alive Monster Rewards Those Who Bring It Sacrifices

She may now begin sacrificing innocent victims to the monstrous being in exchange for this ability.

After the creature tries to trap Ambar towards the end of No One Gets Out Alive , she fights back, and the monster retreats to its box. Ambar heads upstairs to take on Red and Becker, splitting the latter’s skull after a grueling fight before sacrificing Red in revenge in some of No One Gets Out Alive's most violent moments .

Although Ambar manages to kill both of them, she gets a smashed ankle. However, after she feeds the monster, offering the beast a sacrifice appears to have a miraculous regenerative effect as her broken foot heals in an instant. The horror movie’s twist ending sees Ambar glance back at the basement, with the implication that she may now begin sacrificing innocent victims to the monstrous being in exchange for this ability.

Does No One Gets Out Alive Set Up A Sequel? (What Does Ambar Choose?)

Ambar's fate after the movie is left ambiguous.

Ambar becoming the No One Gets Out Alive monster Itzpapalotl's new devotee does not ring entirely true with her character.

It is not clear what happened to Ambar at the end of No One Gets Out Alive , but she gained powers after sacrificing Red, who she sees as one of the house’s many ghosts following his death. The fact her broken foot healed instantaneously could imply Ambar could continue to sacrifice humans to the monster in exchange for whatever gifts it offered Becker.

However, this Twilight Zone -style twist of Ambar becoming the No One Gets Out Alive monster Itzpapalotl's new devotee does not ring entirely true with her character. Until this point she has been more morally upright and decent, in contrast to Red and Becker. While it's entirely possible Ambar goes down a similar path to her former captors, this interpretation of the ending doesn't feel quite right considering her actions prior to the No One Gets Out Alive ending.

Ambar Is The Only Character Who Survives

Other than Ambar and the monster, as the title suggests, No One Gets Out Alive explained no named character in the house made it out alive. Her uncle Beto is beaten to death by Becker, while Becker himself has his throat slashed and head crushed by Ambar. Ambar later feeds a mortally wounded Red to the monster, and her only surviving housemate is tossed off a stairwell to her death by Becker during the movie’s most gratuitously nasty kill.

This is one of the changes from the No One Get Outs Alive book — the story continues past this point to a future where Ambar has to confront the beast.

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The 2021 horror movie is a commentary on the treatment of immigrants.

No One Gets Out Alive shines a harsh light on the realities of how young immigrants are exploited and abused through the prism of a surreal horror tale.

The No One Gets Out Alive ending explained that the movie is commentary on the exploitative cycle of cheap labor. Red and Becker feed young women to the monster for personal gain, much like Ambar’s co-worker preys on her desperation and dreams of a better life. The monster itself gives its victims a comforting memory to ease them into death.

As the movie ends, Ambar accepts the monster's gift, exploiting new vulnerable victims and starting the process all over again. No One Gets Out Alive shines a harsh light on the realities of how young immigrants are exploited and abused through the prism of a surreal horror tale.

There Are No Plans For No One Gets Out Alive 2

In an incredibly rare case of Schrödinger's Success, making No One Gets Out Alive 2 is as good an idea as not making one.

There are no plans for a sequel to No One Gets Out Alive , and the ending didn't necessarily leave a need for the story to continue as it felt satisfactory. Ambar in No One Gets Alive reaches a new equilibrium, albeit a troubling one, by the end of the movie. However, the new normal Ambar finds is exactly what could also make a No One Gets Out Alive sequel work, and there is about a quarter of the book's story left to tell.

In the novel, she sells the story to the press, buys a mansion, and then has to confront and defeat Itzpapalotl once and for all when she can't quite shake her fear of the monster. The gory ending to No One Gets Out Alive and the novel sets up a further narrative beat, but the ending's strength in its truncated form demonstrates why a follow-up isn't necessary. In an incredibly rare case of Schrödinger's Success, making No One Gets Out Alive 2 is as good an idea as not making one.

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The monster saw ambar as a ceremonial priestess.

When the monster realizes that Ambar will sacrifice anything to live, it sees this strength and allows her to live as a result.

Director Santiago Menghini gave a small description of the mosnter which finally emerges at the end of No One Gets Out Alive . According to the director, there was a good reason the monster didn't kill Ambar. He explained that the memories of her mother didn't cause Ambar to submit herself to death. Instead, Ambar really wanted to live. As with many people who come to the country looking for a fresh chance, she will fight for her future.

When the monster realizes that Ambar will sacrifice anything to live, it sees this strength and allows her to live as a result. The No One Gets Out Alive ending explained that the monster made the right decision. Not only did Ambar do what she needed to do to live, but she was willing to sacrifice the men who tried to kill her. When she led Red into the basement and sacrificed him to the monster, she proved she could serve this monster just like the men before her.

While it didn't seem that Ambar would go down that route because she seemed to be a good person, Menghini admitted that is what the ending meant, saying, " Ambar has taken the role of priestess in the ceremonial ritual " (via 1428 Elm ). Menghuyini also talked about the imagery from the movie and how it played into the No One Gets Out Alive ending and the monster.

The moths, including the one that Ambar encounters at the end, represent the trapped souls of previous victims of the monster. The hand imagery is associated with the grooming that goes into preparing the victims. This also led the director to saying it explains the motives of the monster:

" It doesn’t just want to eat its victims, it wants to own them, possess them, keep them forever ."

[Review] Netflix’s ‘No One Gets Out Alive’ Delights With Surprising Twist to Haunted House Horror

The marketing behind Netflix’s latest Halloween offering suggests a modern but standard haunted house tale. The sole tease that there’s more to  No One Gets Out Alive , other than its intriguing title, is that it’s executive produced by David Bruckner  and adapted from an  Adam Nevill novel. The last time Bruckner teamed up with Nevill it resulted in  The Ritual  taking Netflix by storm.  Santiago Menghini ’s feature debut toys with the tropes of the haunter to deliver a thrilling subversion that builds into an unforgettable finale and leaves you begging for more from Nevill’s box of horror.

Ambar ( Cristina Rodlo ) relocates to Ohio to pursue the American dream in the wake of her mother’s death. She arrives in Cleveland undocumented with little to her name. Ambar finds work in a local factory that pays under the table and rents a room at a dilapidated boarding house from intimating landlord Red ( Marc Menchaca ). The longer Ambar stays, the more she becomes unsettled by strange happenings. Nightly sobbing from other tenants echoes throughout the walls, nightmares grow more vivid, and other eerie occurrences leave Ambar feeling like something is very, very wrong with the place. Ambar may have wound up in a trap from which she can’t escape alive.

Menghini, working from a script by Jon Croker and Fernanda Coppel , keeps Ambar at the forefront of the horror. All of the tell-tale signs of a haunted house are present; the sounds, the flickering lights, the glowing eyes of a ghost announcing its presence in the dark contribute to an effective atmosphere. But Ambar’s struggles to survive financially serve as an empathetic distraction. Trying to appease ruthless bosses and perhaps even more unforgiving landlords addresses the age-old haunted house question of why a tenant simply can’t flee their haunted abode. The personal conflicts that Ambar encounters systematically cut her off at every turn, cornering her without escape. Rodlo engenders rooting interest; Ambar is kind and intelligent, but her mounting desperation douses the burning tension in gasoline.

Ambar’s plight makes for a more modern approach that doesn’t exactly reinvent the haunted house genre, though it does make it compelling. However, just when you think you’ve figured it all out,  No One Gets Out Alive  explodes into a brutal third act, and the surprises don’t stop coming until the credits start rolling. It’s not just the jaw-dropping violence that pulls the rug out from under you but the unique mythology that lends to one deeply satisfying payoff.

For his feature debut, Menghini surprises with a unique structure and the way he lulls the viewer with familiar haunted house conventions, only to shatter them all with a sharp detour into something else entirely in the third act. There’s also a refreshing lack of hand-holding on the mythos behind this strange yet spooky building. The filmmaker gives enough clues throughout to get a feel for the bigger picture but lets the horror and his lead heroine do the heavy lifting. The precise type of format that could reward further upon revisits.  No One Gets Out Alive  bears all the hallmarks of a massive sleeper hit for Netflix, and you’ll want to get ahead of the curve this Halloween season.

Netflix releases No One Gets Out Alive on September 29, 2021.

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

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The Ending Of No One Gets Out Alive Explained

October is quickly approaching, and thankfully, Netflix is prepared to deliver tons of spooky content just in time for the Halloween season. Netflix and Chills 2021 is gearing up to be full of inventive, terrifying, and even darkly-hilarious shows and movies, from the viral series "Squid Game" that's already made a huge impact worldwide to the upcoming teen slasher "There's Someone Inside Your House."

One of the newest additions to Netflix's horror catalog is the slow-burn horror-thriller "No One Gets Out Alive." Loosely based on the novel of the same name, the creepy-crawly film follows a woman named Ambar (Cristina Rodlo) who illegally enters the U.S. for better opportunities after her mother dies. As an undocumented immigrant, Ambar has few options in the way of housing, so when she sees an advertisement for a cheap room, she feels she's struck gold — but she quickly learns that the mysterious Schofield Heights home has many secrets.

"No One Gets Out Alive" is full of tense moments that are made even more terrifying with a dash of supernatural flair — and we're here to explain the ending of the terrifying film. Please note that there are spoilers from this point on.

A reveal based on real Aztec folklore

At the beginning of "No One Gets Out Alive," we see some "archival footage" of what appears to be a stone box being excavated from ancient ruins in Mexico in the '60s. Throughout the rest of the film, the box continues to reappear in Ambar's dreams, and we finally get some answers about halfway through. While Ambar rifles through one of the rooms in Schofield Heights, she finds the family heirlooms of the property manager Red (Marc Menchaca), whose father was the archeologist shown in the archival footage from the film's prologue.

A quick glimpse of some of the documents Ambar finds shows a scene almost exactly like what we see at the end of the film: a drawing labeled "Itzpapalotl in Tamoanchan" featuring a stone box with a decapitated body underneath. The final reveal in "No One Gets Out Alive" shows that the creature living inside the mysterious box is an ancient entity. Red and his brother sacrifice young immigrant women to this being in exchange for blessings after they'd discovered their father did the same thing. The creature is modeled after the real Aztec religious figure Itzpapalotl, and it is depicted as a sort of moth/woman monster.

According to Aztec mythology, Itzpapalotl is a skeletal warrior who watches over the heavenly land of Tamoanchan. She's often depicted with jaguar claws and wings adorned with obsidian knives, and her name translates to both "obsidian butterfly" and "clawed butterfly," per  Aztec Calendar .

Is Ambar a killer?

Before Ambar can be successfully sacrificed to Itzpapalotl, she has a dream in which she revisits her sick mother (played by Claudia Coulter) in the hospital. While it appears to be a memory, it also looks like Itzpapalotl is manipulating parts of it, as her mother tries to convince Ambar to stay with her and therefore die by Itzpapalotl's hands. However, at the last moment, Ambar smothers her mother with a pillow in her dream, then wakes up on the sacrificial slab with Itzpapalotl nowhere to be seen.

Was Ambar confronting the hard truth in which she killed her mother to free herself from the burden of caring for her for several more years? Or was Itzpapalotl truly messing with Ambar's mind and trying to get her to let her guard down so she could be taken as a sacrifice? It's unclear, but either outcome is pretty horrible.

In the last scene of "No One Gets Out Alive," we see Ambar walking towards the front door of Schofield Heights after killing Red and his brother Becker (David Figlioli) in self-defense. As she gets closer to freedom, Ambar's ankle — that Becker broke — miraculously heals, and moths that were continuously shown around the stone box and Itzpapalotl throughout the film start to flit around Ambar serenely.

We end the film not knowing whether Ambar will choose to leave Schofield Heights, or stay and be the next person to sacrifice helpless victims to Itzpapalotl for her otherworldly blessing.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

No One Gets Out Alive

• After being forced to take a room in a boardinghouse, an immigrant in search of the American Dream finds herself in a nightmare she can't escape.
• Ambar, an undocumented, desperate Mexican immigrant, moves into a rundown Cleveland boardinghouse after her mother's death. Soon odd things start happening to her, both at the new boardinghouse and outside. Then the unsettling cries and eerie visions begin. Ambar begins to dream about her mother on her deathbed. What is the meaning of her dreams? And are those real dreams? — Frank Liesenborgs
• After years of caring for a terminally ill mother who recently died, Ambar Cruz finally pursues a new life as an undocumented immigrant in Ohio. Ambar rents a room in a boarding house run by Red and his mysterious brother Becker. Ambar soon begins having visions of women haunting the house as well as nightmares involving an unseen creature inside an ancient stone box. Over time, Ambar also briefly meets other immigrant women boarding in the home including Freja, Petra, and Maria. While Red is distracted, Ambar investigates the secret study that is off limits to boarders. Ambar finds artifacts, tapes, and files collected in Mexico by Red and Becker's parents, Professor Arthur Welles and his wife Mary. The materials document Mesoamerican rituals that involve human sacrifices and the stone box from Ambar's nightmares. Ambar's coworker Kinsi scams Ambar out of her cash by promising a fake id only to then disappear. Ambar also loses her under-the-table factory job by unintentionally angering her boss. Back at the house, Ambar hears screaming from the shower drain before seeing a brief vision of Freja. Ambar asks about Freja, but Red claims she moved out several days earlier. Paranormal activity that includes pleas for help from invisible entities suddenly plagues Ambar's room. Frightened, Ambar calls unfamiliar family friend Beto, who refuses Ambar's request to provide a place to stay. Out of money and unable to find Red, Ambar simply flees the house. Over the phone, Ambar asks Red to meet her at a diner to return her security deposit. When he arrives however, Red claims he doesn't have the cash with him. Under the pretense of returning her money, Red convinces Ambar to return to the house. Back in her room, Red tells Ambar that his father was a crazy person who collected strange items and killed Red's mother. Red also claims he was going to help Ambar, but his brother Becker needs her. Becker enters the room and performs ritualistic motions including chanting, spreading a substance on Ambar's face, and forcing liquid down her throat. The two brothers confine Ambar to her room with a warning that her treatment will worsen if she tries to leave again. Petra and Maria come to Ambar for help escaping Becker. Petra and Ambar discover they both dream of the stone box, which Petra believes exists in the basement. More visions of dead women haunt Ambar. The brothers come to collect the three women, but are interrupted when Beto comes to the door looking for Ambar. Becker beats Beto to death. Red explains to Ambar that his father forced his mother to help him murder women as part of a ritual he discovered could cure ill health. Arthur then killed Mary. The two brothers killed their father, but Becker became obsessed with believing the box chose him to cure his illness too. Ambar pleads for Red to spare her life, but Red insists he must help his brother. Becker chains Ambar to an altar in the basement and leaves her alone with the stone box. A creature emerges. The creature gives Ambar a vision that she is embracing her dying mother when in reality the monster begins killing Ambar. Sensing something is wrong, Ambar resists. Ambar smothers her mother with a pillow in the vision, which causes the creature to retreat to its box in reality. Ambar goes back upstairs. Ambar recovers a ceremonial weapon from the study and uses it to viciously attack the two brothers. Becker fights back, but Petra steps in to save Ambar. Becker throws Petra down a stairwell to her death. Ambar clubs Becker to death with the weapon. Ambar drags Red to the basement and chains him to the altar. The creature emerges from the box to kill Red. Red becomes another ghost trapped in the house. Ambar stumbles to leave the house, but her wounds suddenly heal. Ominous veins begin pulsing on Ambar's head just like they did on Becker. (thanks to culturecrypt)

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No One Gets Out Alive

2021, Horror/Mystery & thriller, 1h 30m

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No one gets out alive   photos.

Desperate and without documentation, a woman from Mexico moves into a rundown Cleveland boardinghouse. Then the unsettling cries and eerie visions begin.

Genre: Horror, Mystery & thriller

Original Language: English (United Kingdom)

Director: Santiago Menghini

Writer: Fernanda Coppel , Jon Croker

Runtime: 1h 30m

Production Co: Imaginarium Productions

Cast & Crew

Marc Menchaca

Cristina Rodlo

Victoria Alcock

David Barrera

Joana Borja

David Figlioli

Mitchell Mullen

Motel Manager

Pepa Duarte

Immigrant Woman

Moronke Akinola

Santiago Menghini

Fernanda Coppel

Critic Reviews for No One Gets Out Alive

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Maggie Rose Cements Her Country-Soul Reinvention on ‘No One Gets Out Alive’

By Joseph Hudak

Joseph Hudak

Nashville was once famously called a ‘ten year town,’ because that’s about how long an artist has to make it there. Maggie Rose has been at it longer than that. Along the way, she struggled to break through in mainstream country music by submitting herself to the machine: playing CMA Fest in the midday summer sun, visiting countless radio stations, and releasing country singles that went nowhere.

No One Get Out Alive glides along on good vibes and showcases an artist fully confident in where she stands. “I don’t need a golden ticket to be part of the club/because I’m already in it,” she sings in the delicious defiance of “Underestimate Me.” “Anywhere I land I’ll stick it/Maybe it’s a dream, but to me I live it.”

It helps that Rose has such a dynamic voice to work with, and that she no longer needs to shoehorn it into the parameters of a country radio song. She soars on the title track, which opens with subtle piano notes and Rose’s declarations to live a life uninhibited: “Buy the house, visit Rome/Wear the dress that stops the show.” It’s a five-and-a-half-minute opus that crescendos with Rose’s pipes cutting a path through an Abbey Road -like wall of sound.

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Rose is at her controlled best on ballads like “Too Young” and “Vanish,” but she allows herself to rock with abandon here and there (a few more moments of that would have been welcome). Chief among them is “Dead Weight,” which blasts off with a Stones-y riff before Rose commences to free herself from a person — or entity — that’s been holding her back.

Could it be Music Row? Despite releasing No One Gets Out Alive on the Nashville label Big Loud Records (home to Morgan Wallen and Hardy), Rose sounds free of that regimented past. She’s both out of the game and fully alive.

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