Between now and the closing film of the Toronto International Film Festival on September 16th, Killer Reviews will be highlighting some of the films that will have screenings at the prestigious event and giving you some insight into some of the more lesser known movies that being showcased in Canada.

Today, we take a look at Ryuhei Kitamura’s No One Lives

It was over ten years ago that director Ryuhei Kitamura was introduced to audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival. Kitamura brought his violence-o-plenty film Versus to the Midnight Madness Series at the festival in 2001 and he hasn’t had to look back since. The director of Godzilla: Final Wars and Midnight Meat Train that was introduced to an American agent by Samuel L. Jackson is back at the TIFF again this year with the world premiere of his new film, No One Lives.

As described by the TIFF program guide, No One Lives has the following synopsis:

“A brutal massacre leaves fourteen students dead and the local police without a clue as to the whereabouts of young heiress Emma, who may be the sole survivor. Many months later, a clan of backwoods bandits, headed by stern patriarch Hoag, runs a vacationing couple off the road in a routine highway robbery, only to discovered the fightened Emma in the couple’s custody. The bandits think they’ve hit the jackpot, given the promise of a hefty reward for Emma’s rescue-but it turns out these gangster yokels are rank amateurs who have kicked a hornet’s nest. Soon enough, everyone is sent running for their lives from an even greater danger than they could have imagined.”

Adelaide Clemens, Lee Tergesen, Luke Evans and Laura Ramsey star in this warped twist on the horror-thriller genre which also boasts a supporting cast that includes George Murdoch (aka Brodus Clay) and America Olivo (Bitch Slap).

The script comes courtesy of first-timer David Cohen, but word is that the screenplay’s plot ‘takes routine genre clichés and folds them in on themselves’. With twists seemingly around every tree, No One Lives has a very good chance of being the Belle of the Midnight Madness Ball.

No One Lives premieres on Saturday September 8th at the Ryerson Theatre and then has repeat showings Monday September 10th and Friday September 14th.