NO ONE LIVES

(director: Ryhuei Kitamura; screenwriter: David Cohen; cinematographer: Daniel C. Pearl; editor: Toby Yates; music: Jerome Dillon; cast: Luke Evans (Driver), Adelaide Clemens (Emma Ward), Derek Magyar (Flynn), Lee Tergesen (Hoag), America Olivo (Tamara), Beau Knapp (Denny), Lindsey Shaw (Amber), Brodus Clay (Ethan), Laura Ramsey (Betty), Gary Grubbs (Harris); Runtime: 82; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Harry Knapp/Kami Naghdi; Pathe/Anchor bay; 2012-USA/Germany)

“Fascinates for all the wrong reasons.“

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

A revolting horror thriller featuring psychopaths fighting each other. Japanese director Ryhuei Kitamura (“Midnight Meat Train”/”Versus”) keeps it gory and stylish as an American gothic shocker with no redeeming values or any aesthetic scenes or any mounting tension.

It reinvents real-life serial killer Richard Speck and falsely fictionalizes him here as its genius anti-hero unnamed misfit– a chilling mass killer of 14 coeds who is on the run with the 15th coed his hostage. In reality, it should be noted, Speck was a dummy. The sicko screenplay by David Cohen is filled with terrible dialogue and its over-the-top story is not good, just weird. The low-budget slasher film fascinates for all the wrong reasons. A man known as Driver (Luke Evans) and his female companion Betty (Laura Ramsey) take a room at a motel and then stop off at a rural Louisiana diner, where they are harassed by a ruthless member of a local hillbilly gang of thieves, Flynn (Derek Magyar). But he’s stopped by the leader Hoag (Lee Tergese) for fear his actions will call attention to the gang. When outside the diner Flynn’s gang jumps the couple and take them prisoner in their cabin, in the hopes of torturing the seemingly helpless tourists to steal their bank accounts. When they check the couple’s trailer they find the missing student heiress, Emma Ward (Adelaide Clemens), bound and gagged. Her father has offered a two million dollar reward for her return, as she’s the only victim in the infamous student murder case thought to still be alive.

When Betty chooses to end her life by slitting her throat with the blade held to her throat by her hulking captor Ethan (Brodus Clay, professional wrestler), Driver frees himself from his handcuffs and gruesomely kills Ethan and escapes the other gang members by hiding in his carcass. Driver then uses his supernatural hunting skills to take down the gang one by one and the fun is I suppose in watching such sights as a female strung up from a tree and a man shredded into little pieces by a meat grinder.

It’s the kind of schlocky low-level bloody horror pic that might satisfy either sociopaths or fanatic WWE wrestling fans or those with just a taste for bad movies that have no limits to their poor taste.

REVIEWED ON 10/10/2017 GRADE: C   https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/