No Choice Review: Where Choosing ‘Life’ is a Terrifying Trap

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

Amy is a hardworking young woman, doing two part-time jobs, looking after her ailing drug-addict mom, all while studying for a scholarship to secure her future. But an unexpected pregnancy threatens to jeopardize her dreams. She lives in an American state where abortions are illegal, leaving her with scarily limited options in ‘No Choice’, a psychological horror film which explores the ramifications of having little autonomy over your own body. A problem that’s magnified when you aren’t born with a silver spoon.

Directed and written by Nate Hilgartner, ‘No Choice’ stars Hannah Deale as primary protagonist Amy, who starts to have terrifying nightmares that she’ll die if she doesn’t get an abortion. These nightmares are a manifestation of her living conditions: she can barely pay all her bills, any little medical mishap is a body blow to her meagre savings, and now, with a baby on the way from a random hook-up, her future looks increasingly claustrophobic and bleak.

‘No Choice’ opens with a dream sequence, which almost looks like it could be out of an old Taylor Swift video. However, soon Amy wakes up to get into the daily grind of working at a soulless convenience store job with her colleague Lucas (Robert Denzel Edwards). The story largely unfolds at the store and Amy’s apartment, the limited settings becoming emblematic of her suffocating circumstances. The only escape from these spaces comes in the form of her eerie, ominous dreams, which make the plot work as a psychological horror film. The only thing that seemed slightly odd was Amy’s flat, which didn’t look like a ‘lived-in’ space shared by two people over time, instead seeming like a fresh rental hired for the film.

Hannah Deale portrays Amy with an open vulnerability, shouldering the emotional punches with ease, making the viewer root for her character in ‘No Choice’. She is an introverted girl, with no friends except for her colleague Lucas, who is too self-absorbed in his own world to give her any real support. So, in what could be relatable to many viewers, Amy heavily relies on the advice of online ‘influencers’ on crucial matters.

A scene from No Choice

Jennifer Herzog plays Amy’s drug-addict mother Debra, ironically a devout Christian, completely dependent on her young daughter, yet has the gall to suggest she drop everything and have the baby. Debra, of course, is a strict anti-abortionist, which puts Amy in a moral quandary between choosing herself and an uncertain life with a baby she’d barely be able to provide for. The characters represent two clashing schools of thought… however there’s something amiss in the mother-daughter dynamic.

As an international viewer, a woman at that, I cannot count the times I’ve felt confounded watching American movies, where young female protagonists with bright futures are made to feel like they have ‘no choice’ but to keep a baby from an accidental-unwanted pregnancy, giving you the sense that either the creators are politically motivated, or playing it too safe so as to not upset a certain section of the audience. One of the few films I can immediately think of right now, where a female protagonist didn’t think twice before deciding to abort her baby was the horror film “Immaculate”, and that’s because the baby was literally Satan’s spawn (sorry for the spoiler if you haven’t seen the film). So, in that sense, Nate Hilgartner’s film is certainly a bold and assertive take on women’s reproductive rights, even though there’s considerable suspense over Amy’s eventual fate.

There’s a scene in ‘No Choice’ where Amy suffers a minor cut on her finger, which racks up a staggering over 500 USD bill, which to me was the most surreal part of the film. Treating a wound like that wouldn’t cost more than 50 USD in a swanky private hospital and would be less than 10 in a government hospital in my country. So, the film is a scathing criticism of both the American healthcare system and the alarming state of reproductive rights of women. Interestingly, the film refrains from vilifying men or assigning external blame, choosing to let Amy’s own perspective and resilience drive the story, allowing her internal struggle to take precedence.

As time ticks by, Amy gets increasingly desperate to take decisive action, increasingly like an animal trapped in a cage rigged with spiked walls that are constantly shrinking, meant to kill the captive in the end. Hannah Deale vividly acts out Amy’s despair, anxiety, and psychological breakdown in the second half. The climax is open-ended; it doesn’t offer a conclusive resolution to Amy’s dilemma, closing her story in a wicked twist that leaves both ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ viewers plenty of fodder to debate and rage about.

Just 95 minutes long, ‘No Choice’ ultimately is an unsettling look at the psychological toll unplanned pregnancy takes on young women in places where abortion is illegal and the moral stigma surrounding it even more terrifying.

Rating: 3.5 stars on 5.

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Published on June 25, 2025 13:04
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