I read the succinct review giving this an "8", and I thought that it would be beneficial to give an additional point of view.

I have posted this before, but I cannot state how much I loathe modern cinematography. Camera angles may be well thought out, but everything regarding filmic cinematography in the past 10 to 15 years seems to be enslaved by "computer tinting" or "teal and orange/yellow" color timing. Everything, and I mean everything, in this film is slathered in teal and yellow to the point of being ridiculous. It only serves the purpose of reminding me that I am watching a film through a camera lens, and that everything is fake. A good film should pull you in, not kick you out.

Even so, I will say that the acting of Kaitlyn Dever as Brynn is quite good for a first main starring appearance. With that said, I am not sure how I feel about the lack of dialogue. It works rather well while she is alone during the first alien's "tour" of her house, but when she escapes and rides a bike into town, it becomes a bit forced just to keep the gimmick going. Things started to fall apart when she attempts to leave the town on a Greyhound bus, and "head crabbed" citizens start crawling inside the bus like the Alien from Alien 3.

She works her way back to her house, and starts Home Alone ing the place (?) You have some fairly suspenseful moments with a mini Cloverfield alien (with small legs and extremely long arms with huge hands), culminating with a "Spider Alien" chasing her around. Hijinks ensue and she is eventually captured, where she is installed with a head crab of her own.

She wakes up and all is well... the house is in one piece, all of her nicknacks are in their proper place.. all is right with the world.. until she snaps out of it, reaches down her throat and pulls out her head crab, freeing her from the twist ending. The aliens make more attempts to abscond with her, as she runs into the woods and is confronted with a cleaner version of herself, who stabs our main character with (I'm guessing) the same nicknack she stabbed the first alien with (I commented to my brother "being that the script was most likely written by a narcissistic millennial, it figures that the only one who could have effectively taken out our protagonist would be another version of herself.")

The aliens finally abduct her, whereupon they scan her of her memories. It is here that you discover that she murdered her friend during an argument when they were 12, getting pushed down only to return the antagonism with a well placed rock to her friend's forehead. Why Brynn never went to jail for 2nd degree murder is a head scratcher is another mystery. In the end, the aliens let her go and put her back on planet Earth.

The "ending" has her putting on makeup and a dress, and going into town, whereupon everyone has been Pleasantvilled and are happily dancing with 1950's comfortable oblivion as the aliens fly in their multitude of saucers overhead, as the words "THE END" splurt onto the screen.

(Sigh) I would like to know where the "good" reviews are coming from, because this movie was not very good.. at least for those of us who have watched movies enough to understand basic storytelling devices. I will say that I have mentioned on my review of Foes (1977) that I love the idea of doing an 80 to 90 minute long film just on the Barry abduction scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) as the idea is simple and solid (very Night of the Living Dead). And yet, the "teal and yellow' computer tinting killed any chance for emersion, but I stuck it out just to see where it would go. I liked the 1st act despite the alien being pretty badly CGI rendered. Still, the scene with her hiding under the bed was nice. Even when she kills the alien, I was still curious as to where the movie would go: would she call the Press to see an actual dead alien? Do you now search for the idling space ship sitting somewhere out in the woods?

It ends as it begins, with the aliens being extremely inept and constantly forgetting that they have psychic powers, or constantly locking their abduction beam to a few feet past our heroine to give her a chance to escape, and the film the chance to reach 90 minutes. The aliens are so inept that you can't help but throw your hands up and give up on the film. It never helps when you realize your character has plot armor to the point where whatever happens doesn't matter, as they're all just puppets on a string.

As far as the ending goes, I do not know what to make of it. Are the aliens granting humanity peace by giving them all the "Leave it to Beaver" lifestyle? Why are they running around naked, with claws, yelling and screaming like generic monsters then? I guess we'll just have to figure that out on our own.

or we can just let the director tell us:

"If you have this hyper-intelligent species that is curious about us, then they’re not just coming to wipe the slate clean," he said. "There is a real curiosity about Brynn, and as they start to figure things out about her, they kind of want to know what happens next in her story."

The "what happens next in her story" comes after the aliens have discovered the secret that's kept her trapped in her late parents' house as a recluse — and rather than controlling her via a throat-bug like the other people in town, the aliens choose to allow her to continue living her life in an idealistic version of the town that's similar to the one she creates in her own miniature dioramas at home. The movie ends with her dancing in harmony with the town's alien-controlled inhabitants, seemingly content at last.

"She finally gets something that she didn’t think she would ever deserve, and I like the idea that this kid who has gone through so much had a really happy ending, as strange as it may be," Duffield said.

Yes, Brian.. a psychopath who murders her 12 year old best friend who doesn't see a day in jail deserves a happy ending where everyone is a slave to fulfill your fantasy of everyone not holding you accountable for killing a child.

I would give this a 2 out of 10