NO ONE LIVES is a fast paced horror
film with a good story and I enjoyed it tremendously. I am tempted to say it should have been
grittier but the violence was strong and made me wince on more than one
occasion. It was well-made movie –
deeply nihilistic but great fun.
But what makes NO ONE LIVES
an evolutionary link in ongoing horror film history is the combination of
certain elements. First, it is not an
indy film. It is a Hollywood production
with good looking production values but it eschews many Hollywood horror conventions. The ending is not just a surprise ending but
a proudly evil one. The hero is a serial
killer and, unlike Hannibal Lecter or Dexter, his victims aren’t just criminal and
lowlifes, some of them are innocent people.
The main character is played
by a popular young actor Luke Evans and he plays the part the way one plays the iconic loner hero be he spy
or cop or other figure of action. In
addition, there is hardly any backstory given as to why his character is a serial
killer so the audience has nothing upon which to hang emotions on and therefore
dilute the interpretations of his horrific actions.
So the end result is a slick
Hollywood film about a guy who kills people without any sense of morality or
any punishment at the end. The secondary
villains of the film, a gang of incompetent thieves, can hardly be seen as
being on the same level of evil
Hollywood is already sociopathic
but films of this nature should embrace their content without watering the plot
down or chickening out at the end. Such honesty coupled with bigger budgets will
make horror films more powerful and thus better. NO ONE LIVES is a big step forward for the horror
genre.
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