MANILA, Philippines - If you haven’t had a good scare on the big screen lately or if the horror-suspense thrillers shown recently disappointed you (like the much-ballyhooed The Conjuring), No One Lives is definitely out to make you scream and leave you frightened at least for an hour and a half.
The film is not a big-budget release. The cast is limited to a few actors and there are no big stars to boot. Main protagonist is Welsh actor Luke Evans, who made his Hollywood film debut in 2010’s Clash of the Titans and was seen in Fast & Furious 6 earlier this year.
Evans plays an unnamed lead in No One Lives, but is simply known as Driver, a simple, quiet man at the start of the story. It later turns out the guy is a psychopath. He becomes an unstoppable and merciless killing machine when a bunch of hoodlums kidnap him and his girlfriend.
The story begins with a young woman (Adelaide Clemens) screaming for help and her killer is unseen. The girl manages to etch her name in a tree to give a clue that she is still alive. She resurfaces when one of the thugs discovers her hidden, tied and gagged, in the trunk of the car. She turns out to be the heiress who has been missing for several months.
Fast forward to a couple who gets entangled with a group of violent criminals — male and their female companions. When the captive girl commits suicide, the guy transforms into a skilled and seasoned killer who ultimately vows that no one lives, as he exacts vengeance on his assailants.
There is violence to the max in this film — blood splattering, flowing and oozing, flesh being cut and mangled, head gets shredded, throat gets slit and ladies brutally groaning, screaming, running and crying for help.
Driver is a ruthless and brutal killer who does not flinch at ending the life of one person in every imaginative and gruesome way. He kills with much passion. For his first victim, he slits open the flesh and hides inside the body of the burly guy, so that he’s all covered with blood when he comes out naked. Even the dialogue in the script is screaming with terror.
Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, No One Lives is a fast-paced gorefest that leaves no room for boredom. Once the action or the killing starts, shrieks and screams from the audience definitely follow.
No One Lives is an ideal material for fans of slasher flicks who are not expecting much in the story, but simply delight in the visual blood, gore and carnage that the horror thriller exhibits. Completed in 2012, the film was exhibited in the Toronto International Film Festival in September of last year, but commercial release in theaters happened this year.