Starring: Luke Evans, Gary Grubbs, Adelaide Clemens

Genre: Horror/ Thriller/ Lots of Blood

After a botched job, a gang of highway killers kidnap a seemingly wealthy couple (Luke Evans and Laura Ramsey) thinking they can make some quick money to make up for it. Unfortunately the couple are not what they seem, and in the trunk of their car is a tied up heiress named Emma (Clemens) who has been a news feature for being kidnapped. She reveals that this man is a skilled and psychotic killer, and once he escapes where held captive he begins a brutal and bloody assault on the gang’s hideout while trying to once again kidnap Emma in what appears to be a bizarre and very dark relationship the two of them have.

When ‘from the director of Midnight Meat Train’ appears on a poster it is never particularly inspiring, but with his latest director Kitamura has produced a real old school gore fest that will never win any prizes but is undoubtedly tremendous fun. Every character with the exception of Adelaide Clemens’ character is horrible and No One Lives never takes any moral high ground or even wants us to root for anyone. What in my view makes No One Lives such tremendous guilty fun is that it never tries to be clever and go for silly twists towards the end, it is just an unashamedly old school gore and blood fest and is all the far better for it. The title alone suggests what we are all in for.

As the main character simply called ‘driver’ Luke Evans is obviously having tremendous fun and brings bucket loads of charisma to the film’s main character. We do not necessarily like him, but we cannot help but share in his fun.  As the narrative goes on and the body count increases and gore is turned up beyond 11 there are of course plenty of plot holes, but it is all such outrageous fun that does not seem to matter.

Of course if you hate gore, blood and guts then No One Lives is not for you, but otherwise it is slickly made with confidence and so unashamedly over the top that it is impossible not to sit back and enjoy the lean blood splattered running time of 86 minutes. Though you may well feel the need to have a wash afterwards.

5/10