DVD Review – No One Lives

Old-school horror, the kind that makes you laugh and squirm in equal measure, is frightfully hard to come by these days. Either a film doesn’t have the charm to pull off an enjoyable venture into the grotesque, or it lacks the balls and brains to relay a truly horrifying venture. Arguably No One Lives is a failed attempt at the latter with enough self-awareness and genius scripting to thankfully settle quite comfortably into the structure of an old barmy hot-pot of blood and chaos.

Make no mistake, even with its strong element of black comedy and laughable outlandishness, No One Lives is gorgeous in all its gory glory. An ironic B-movie set up of hutners and hunters crossing path is wired to send us on an often humorous trail of destruction. Nodding to a hundred horror pictures with every brutal dispatch whilst making room for its own inventive brand of brutality, is no easy task. There are a few stomach churners and a kind of gleeful gore-hounding that comes hand in hand with any nostalgic trip into horror.

Luke Evans gives a genius performance as the enigmatic Driver, a man of visceral intensity and ridiculous dialogue. His character perhaps sums up the entire film best: aimless, thrilling to behold, and utterly ludicrous. There is no explanation for his actions because there is no need for one. In an age obsessed with back-stories, prequels, and reasons, No One Lives ’ faulted villain is a breath of fresh air, a true man in the vein of Michael Myers with a strong John Ryder vibe. Actually, Evans seems to emulate Hauer’s classic performance for the most part of the film, relishing in the unrelenting brutality of violent men with too much time on their hands.