No One Lives (2012)

Genre : Horror
Country : USA

Cast :
Luke Evans : Driver
Adelaide Clemens : Emma
Derek Magyar : Flynn

Director :
Ryuhei Kitamura

Summary
A gang of ruthless killers abduct a couple. Only they come to a shocking discovery that things are not what they seem.

My opinion
This movie was a pleasant surprise. The beginning was like so many other movie in this genre. Only it took an unexpected turn after a while. What started as a revenge movie in which a couple is abducted by a member of a gang of thugs, quickly turns into a knockout competition for these idlers. The male part of that couple isn't an ordinary guy, it seems. Turns out the crazy gang has found an even more crazy serial killer as an opponent. I haven't seen a film that was directed by Kitamura, but I'm sure going to take a look at some of him. It was a fast and furious movie which wasn't boring for a moment.

It's not really a horror movie. It's more an action packed slaughter movie with some gore fragments. Although the gore isn't that heavy anyway. The majority of the images isn't really explicitly placed into the picture and is rather suggestive. The script was excellent. This because of the plot twists and sometimes different way of working. I found Luke Evans resplendent in his role as "Driver". Only he was a little TOO perfect: he always looked neat and tidy, he was terribly clever and smart, was damn fast in carrying out a plan and set up traps in the field. For example, I found it a bit exaggerated that he had placed booby traps and firearms/bows at strategic locations in the forest in a jiffy. And those traps were also triggered by switches under the boards on the terrace. Amazingly.

The best and most beautiful captured image is the moment he slides out of Ethan's dead body. Now ... if you think further about this, it's again a bit excessive. He'd have an immense job in order to slaughter the latter... and he would certainly fell out of it at the time this behemoth was carried into the van. But that's again splitting hairs.

The only thing that bothered me were the two female gang members : the daughter of the leader and his mistress (I suppose). Two annoying nasty bitches who deserved to be eliminated too. The final battle with the vaunted Flynn was put on the screen in a excellent way and the denouement was surprising. For once evil wasn't defeated and goes further on the similar path. An open end and therefore a follow-up which is enormously welcome for me.
Not groundbreaking or earth shattering, but a surprising and pleasant pop-corn material.