Ryûhei Kitamura‘s No One Lives is trying so hard to be cool, it hurts.  It is a complete and utter wreck of a screenplay that sounds like it was written by an idiotic 16-year-old boy.  The acting is abysmal, and only made worse by the fact that there are real actors put side-by-side with amateur ones.  Kitamura’s earlier film, Versus, wasn’t a great, but it at least showed some kinetic energy.  However, that kind of slick movement, or any personality beyond a generic slasher, is completely absent from his new movie.  All it has to offer is gruesome kills, and not even particularly inventive ones at that.  But hey, the protagonist is a violent psychopath in a black trench coat, so I guess that means this movie has a personality.  It’s just a personality no one wants to be around.

Today, the Toronto International Film Festival announced their excellent Midnight Madness and Vanguard line-ups.  Among the films playing in these program with new images and synopses are:

• No One Lives (directed by Ryuhei Kitamura) Starring Luke Evans, Adelaide Clemens, Derek Magyar, Lee Tergesen, and America Olivo
• Sightseers (directed by Ben Wheatley) Starring Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Eileen Davies, Jonathan Aris, Richard Glover, and Monica Dolan
• 90 Minutes (directed by Eva Sørhaug) Starring Aksel Hennie, Kaia Varjord, Bjørn Floberg, Annmari Kastrup, Mads Ousdal, and Pia Tjelta
• Beijing Flickers (directed by Zhang Yuan) Starring Duan Bowen, Lv Yulai, Shi Shi, Han Wenwen, and Li Xinyun

Hit the jump to check out the images and synopses.  The 2012 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 – 16th.

Last week, the Toronto International Film Festival announced the movies playing in its Special Presentations and Galas programs.  Today, they’ve provided the line-up for their other programs including Midnight Madness.  This is where the more genre-oriented films come out to play, and can break out in a big way.  Last year’s TIFF Midnight Madness included the world premiere of The Raid, and the buzz never died down.  Judging by the line-up, this year’s Midnight Madness will have the same frenzy.  The line-up includes the horror short-film anthology The ABCs of Death, Seven Psychopaths (Martin McDonagh‘s follow up to In Bruges), Rob Zombie‘s The Lords of Salem, Don Coscarelli‘s John Dies at the End, and Pete Travis‘ Dredd.

Hit the jump for the full line-up and brief synopses.  The 2012 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 -16th.