Stay Alive

I saw "Stay Alive" tonight, and I was surprised to come home and read reviews discounting it as stupid or pointless.

Actually, I think that the plot was fairly substantial and well thought out for a horror movie--especially a PG-13 one. Granted, it probably would have been better as an R version, but there's always a chance for an unrated DVD. This movie made me think AND scared me, which is a combination hard to find. The time line is fairly stable and simple to follow--except parts of the end--which makes for an enjoyable experience. Without worrying about when things are happening, you are free to instead concentrate on WHY they are happening.

I really liked the video game plot--it was entertaining enough just to watch the gamers get so into it! Everything is interconnected, so it kept me interested enough to look past the "jumpy" parts to the underlying meanings and symbolism.

The characters were fairly dynamic and complex, and the acting was much better than I expected. I actually FELT for them, an element often missing from horror films. The procession of events may have been slightly predictable at times, but the characters remained real and believable throughout. I was happy to see that everything wasn't discarded simply in the name of gore.

The lighting was surprisingly good for this genre--every scene was well-lit and easy to make out what was happening. The colors were perfect to set the mood, and the cinematography was on the better side of average: no complaints here.

Overall, although the ending was a bit of a let-down, I believe this is worth seeing if you like horror movies that also make you THINK--it's not all about scares. I'm also a novice gamer, so I might have appreciated it more than a non-gamer--I don't know.

In conclusion--it's worth a shot.

The kiddie horror market continues to baffle me.

Films like this get pounded by the critics as unimaginative, but them often achieve high viewer ratings on IMDb. This movie suffers low ratings in both spheres but is making money. Lots of it.

The genre demands predictability: some kids die, some survive (always including and often just a boy-girl pair), and at the end, the very end we see how the evil has survived to threaten the exiting audience.

I'll tell you why I went to see it, because I like movies where the "movie within" overlaps in some way with the containing movie. In this case, its a video game; same same. Some viewers compare this to "Jumanji," but in that case, the players enter the game, a fantasy world. In this case, the game enters the real world, more in the "Ringu" fashion.

Is it scary? Are any of these? Who cares? What I care about is whether the folding is done coolly, like in "eXistenZ." And whether the characters are as clever as the fold. A couple of these guys were fun, but typically the girls were clones.

I saw this with "I, Madman." Similar values: clever fold, boring presentation.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

A group of geeky kids, surprisingly not all living in their parents' basements, stumble across an underground game - "Stay Alive". But they're in for a treat: when you die in this game, you're going to die in real life, too! This is an amateur effort from both the writer and the director, whose names I don't recall. In all fairness, for a first time effort, this film was watchable and in some ways quite entertaining. It wasn't wonderful, or scary or much of anything else... but good enough that it seems to help people pass the time. Which, in the end, maybe is all we can hope for from movies.

I liked the video game theme. Unlike the Internet theme of "Fear Dot Com", this was more realistic and the game featured in the movie was the sort of game I could actually see people playing. It reminded me of "House of the Dead", which is too bad now that Uwe Boll ruined that arcade classic. The video game references to Fatal Frame ,the Konami code, and the word "w00t!" were nice touches, and I got the sense that the writer actually knew something about video games. Which is a huge plus. The Mario Brothers "1up" sweatshirt was also a nice touch.

Now, the film has a vampire element because the villain is Elizabeth Bathory, who has somehow been risen from the dead and haunts a video game. Bathory makes a great monster, though maybe not in this movie. A lot of questions remain unanswered about this... because, seriously, if I'm a vampiress from the Middle Ages, I'm not coming back in a video game.

The cast was strong as far as the teen slasher genre goes. Jon Foster played Hutch O'Neill, the fire-fearing leader of this Scooby gang. My only complaint is that he looked like a dead ringer for Jamie Kennedy, which will ultimately boost or kill his career, I think.

Samaire Armstrong was the bleach-haired Abigail, who has a very strong role and exudes some kind of sensuality I can't explain. In one scene she's almost nude, but either her, the writer or the director ruined this... and made it really cheesy. How many girls who unexpectedly get hung upside down have their shirt tucked into their bra?

Frankie Muniz is in this movie, and not nearly as annoying as you probably think. For a 50-year old man trapped in a kid's body (like Haley Joel Osment and Gary Coleman), he's decent.

Sophia Bush was October Bantum, the rebel goth girl... as far as rebel goth girls go, she's alright. You'll find yourself (if you're a young man) getting torn between her and Abigail as your favorite female lead.

Last, I want to point out the great character name of "Loomis Crowley", which I can only assume is an homage to both Aleister Crowley and Dr. Loomis from "Halloween". If not, well, you still get the point for it.

Some of the game elements are a bit cheesy (especially when the game is outside the computer) and the overall story makes little sense and is very teen-oriented. (In other words, it has no depth whatsoever.) But it wasn't bad. You might want to save this for a night when you're drunk and just want something to be amused by without actually wanting to appreciate the film itself.

OK, so you know this movie is going to be cheesy before you even go see it. It's about a game that kills you if you die in it. I already knew that, but I was hoping to be at least entertained. First off, most of the acting was actually pretty good. Some of it was terrible, but I blame the script more than the actors, some of those lines were impossible to deliver realistically. The plot was ehh, well you already know the plot. It was not the strong point of the movie, to say the least. The thing that really bothered me was the fact that the movie cut away right before everyone got killed. I guess that's what happens when you make a PG-13 horror movie. I get the feeling this movie would have been a LOT better if they had just let it get an R rating, and include all of the violence. Violence doesn't necessarily make a good movie, but in this case, what else would you watch this movie for? It doesn't build tension very well, and is generally not very scary. The makeup for the countess looks pretty good, she is a creepy looking woman.

All together the movie wasn't terrible. It was at least entertaining to some extent. Don't expect to be scared unless you are a 14 year old girl. 4/10 stars.

Overall the movie is well done, the ghost are scary without having to show a lot and the acting are generally OK. What really gets me is the script. How they always manage to make the characters so stupid is beyond me. It one thing watching a char die because of the circumstance but watching a char die because of his/her own stupidity is another. It just makes the audience feel cheated and resentful to the characters. Its a shame that horror flick cannot be more intelligent. 'The Ring' was great and it looks like a great beginning for the new age of scary, intelligent movies but this movie push the genre back a few notches.

Basically there should be 2 types of scary movie, 1) intelligent ones and 2) stupid but with lot of T&A. This movie is stupid without the T&A (replaced by really nicely rendered video game scenes). guess that is not enough to please the audience.