No One Lives, 2012.
Directed by Ryûhei Kitamura.
Starring Luke Evans, Gary Grubbs, Adelaide Clemens, Lee Tergesen, Derek Magyar, America Olivo, and Beau Knapp.
SYNOPSIS:
A gang of ruthless highway killers kidnap a wealthy couple traveling cross country only to shockingly discover that things are not what they seem.
Cult Japanese director Ryûhei Kitamura is known for making some of the most action packed, violent and blood soaked world cinema since the turn of the century, with the standout on his CV (and one of my favourite movies) being Versus, a crazy story of criminals vs the undead, fighting a centuries old recurring battle in a forest of resurrection, it’s utterly ridiculous but completely brilliant too . In 2008, Kitamura made his first English language movie with the U.S horror, Midnight Meat Train, an adaptation of a Clive Barker short. While it was nothing special on the horror scene (many people were put off by the lashings of clearly CGI gore), it introduced Bradley Cooper to the world and reminded people why you wouldn’t want to run into Vinnie Jones holding a gigantic butchers hammer. No One Lives is Kitamura’s second crack at the U.S horror market, and it’s a better film in almost every way.
In No One Lives, Luke Evans plays the nameless driver, travelling across the U.S of A with his partner. They stop at a diner in a backwater town and run into some rather unfriendly locals, headed by Hoag (Lee Tergesen) and the feral Flynn (Derek Maygar). Events go from bad to worse when both driver and his partner are kidnapped, resulting in her death. Which is extremely bad news for the kidnappers seeing as driver isn’t all he appears to be, hiding a secret in the trunk of his car, packing a trailer full of state of the art weaponry and trained in the kind of bodily destruction that would make Jigsaw and Leatherface flinch, the gang quickly find themselves up against a smarter, more cunning and extremely ruthless killer who adheres to one simple rule, ‘No one lives’.
Fresh from his scene stealing turn antagonising Vin Diesel and Co in Fast & Furious 6, Luke Evans undoubtedly steals the show here and is clearly having a ball as the mysterious driver, a man of few words but incredibly violent actions. Despite spending almost 90% of the movie soaked in incredible amounts of blood, he remains effortlessly cool and charismatic throughout and I’d love to see more of the character in a sequel. Elsewhere Adelaide Clemens is good as a hostage/herald of the impending death and destruction, never succumbing to the damsel in distress ideal and fully holding her own against Luke Evans. Apart from Lee Tergesen’s criminal with a sort of conscience, Hoag, the villains fare less well, cut from stock cardboard stereotypes and speaking only in villainous boo hiss clichés, they serve no other purpose than to be cut down in variously inventive ways by the driver, especially Derek Maygar who’s character is probably one of the worst villains in recent memory, and you welcome and relish his demise.
The film is very violent, Kitamura throws enough blood around the screen here to ensure even the most hardened horror fans are more than satisfied, thankfully holding back on the CGI blood featured in (and ruining) Midnight Meat Train. Heads explode, bodies are impaled and eviscerated, handcuffs are used in ways that were never intended, and one scene in particular brings new meaning to the term ‘body invasion’.
No One Lives isn’t bringing anything new to the genre nor does it set out to, its villains are awful, its script is purposefully full of clichés and it has its tongue planted firmly in its cheek, but it is great fun and in Luke Evans’ driver, it has created one of the coolest antiheroes on screen since Vin Diesel’s Riddick back in Pitch Black and one I hope that Kitamura and Evans go back to again. Just pray you never learn his real name!
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Kris Wall
Originally published September 23, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
