Stay Alive

 

 

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This is every video gamers dream, to LIVE OUT YOUR GAME. Alltho this group of friends find themselves in a game Im sure they'd rather not live in.
The plot: IF YOU DIE IN THE GAME, YOU DIE IN REAL LIFE.
After the death of a friend, the group gets together to play the game and get pulled into a world they werent looking for.
Great from start to end.
I lost the first one I had, so Im here to buy it again as its a movie me & my husband LOVE to watch over & over.

So that I wouldn't have to stay awake.

"Stay Alive" is a bland horror movie about a video game that kills people the same way they die inside the game. The friends that play this game soon figure this out, and then realize they must defeat the Blood Countess from the video game or accept their fates.

We've had video tapes in "The Ring," a deadly website in "Fear Dotcom," and of course video games movies such as this one. "Stay Alive" does some things well; the character development is quite a bit deeper than it usually would be in a horror movie. We really see into some of the characters feelings and past and get to know them all quite well, so the viewers may gain some emotions for them. The film is also very suspenseful. Tense, unnerving moments are frequently played through the film, accompanied by unsettling, creepy music. There are plenty of jumps and jolts for the viewer. This can be ideal once or twice, but these false scares that Hollywood seems to enjoy overplaying in horror films nowadays, wears thin in Stay Alive.

The camera will tend to provide sharp angles or quick flashes in order to give viewers a very quick glimpse of a demon or witch, and try to scare them with this sudden burst on the screen. Why? The gore is obviously very weak because of the film's certificate. The script to Stay Alive is very cheesy and quite laughable, and the characters tend to play it too melodramatically and confusingly. Also, clichés come in from every direction, for instance people wandering around on their own in search of a strange noise or if they have spotted a figure in the dark, they will go and investigate it.

However the computer graphics used for the video game segments are rather impressive and look colorful and sharp, working well with the other parts of the film. But overall, there is just not enough to hold out on with this film. Stretching at just over a hundred minutes, it won't be a battle to Stay Alive, but rather, Stay Awake.

With its allusions to the infamous Countess Bathory and its promising (albeit less than original) premise of a computer game that really takes on a life (and assorted deaths) of its own, Stay Alive was a movie I just had to watch. I know some people absolutely hated the movie (one critic, Christopher Smith, said "It boasts an absurd premise and runs with it as if it were running with scissors down a very steep hill"), it's certainly true that the plot basically hangs together with imagination alone, and, yes, things really start to fall apart at the end, but I actually sort of enjoyed this movie for the most part. The video game animation was excellent, the first few scenes established some really good atmosphere, and Stay Alive does offer a slight twist on the typical slasher formula. And Sophia Bush is in it.

The story centers around a group of hard-core gamers (stereotypical one and all, from the "hero" to the geek to the goth chick to the hopelessly annoying big-mouth, in addition to a cute young lady who inexplicably joins them) who get all caught up in this new, mysterious game called Stay Alive  the very game one of their fellow gamers was playing the night he and his housemates died grisly deaths. Those victims physically died in the same way their characters were killed in the game  although Hutch (Jon Foster) and his buds don't know this when they fire the beta test CD up and have a go at the game themselves. Now, personally, I would have to wonder about a game that only starts when I recite this little chant displayed on the screen without the game having any kind of voice recognition component. Well, these guys and gals start playing the game and  you guessed it  one of them dies the same way he died in the game. Now that's definitely weird, but it could still be coincidence at this point. With Death #3, though, it's definitely time to start freaking out. Just stop playing the game, you say? Ah, if only it were that easy. The game, you see, seems to still be running on its own in some kind of weird virtual vortex or something. As if things aren't bad enough, Hutch and his friends are definite subjects of interest for the local cops and have to go on the lamb while they try to figure out a way to  wait for it  Stay Alive.

While Countess Erzebet Bathory is never mentioned by name, she is obviously the inspiration for the Blood Countess that lies at the heart of the Stay Alive video game. You remember Countess Bathory, don't you? She's the Hungarian Countess who slaughtered scores of young maidens because she thought she could sustain her youth perpetually by bathing in the blood of virgins. In the context of Stay Alive, the Blood Countess has been transferred to New Orleans and, for reasons the movie doesn't even pretend to explain, she's managed to embed her still-bloodthirsty soul into a video game. Once the gamers figure all this out, they come to the conclusion that, since reality is reflecting what happens in the game, the game must be reflecting real life as well  as in the big tower where the Countess resides. In other words, they attempt to find her mortal remains and  well, I'm not sure what the plan was, really.

I know the plot sounds pretty stupid  and, frankly, it is pretty stupid, but you can still get a kick out of Stay Alive; you just have to cast logic and realism aside and just have fun with what this movie gives you. If you can't do that, though, you will undoubtedly hate every single thing about it.

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4.0 out of 5 stars a fun horror movie with some good scares
wow.i really enjoyed this movie.i had negative preconceived notions going in but they turned out to be unfounded.the acting was above average for this genre. Read more

Published on Oct 11 2006 by falcon

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