Release Date: March 24, 2006
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for horror violence, disturbing images, language, brief sexual and drug content
Written and Directed by: William Brent Bell
Starring: Jon Foster, Samaire Armstrong, Frankie Muniz, Sophia Bush, Adam Goldberg
Plot:
After the mysterious brutal death of an old friend, a group of teenagers find themselves in possession of "Stay Alive," a next generation horror survival videogame based on the true story of a 17th-century noblewoman known as "The Blood Countess." The gamers don't know anything about the game other than the fact that they're not supposed to have it--and they're dying to play it. Not able to resist temptation, the group begins to play the grisly game and soon a chilling connection is made--they are each being murdered one-by-one in the same method as the character they played in the game. As the line between the game world and the real world disappears, the group must find a way to defeat the vicious and merciless Blood Countess, all the while trying to stay alive.
Review:
Stay Alive has one of the lamest plots that has ever been made into a motion picture. To make it short, if you die in the videogame, you die in real life. Yes, Stay Alive is a videogame that when you read a passage and die in the game, then an ancient noblewoman known as The Blood Countess will kill you. This is one of the most terrible ideas ever considered for a motion picture. For the horror genre, this is not surprising because quite frankly horror films this year have been a disappointment.
In Stay Alives defense, it is actually better than Hostel and When a Stranger Calls. Its better because with its unrealistic story and weak plot, it actually tries to unfold a supernatural story that has background to it. Stay Alive takes some of its running length to figure out what is causing the teenagers to die. This film is similar to the Final Destination films in which teenagers care consistently dying, except here death is not after them, but a noblewoman with revenge.
Its ridiculous to even consider this to be a good film because that it is not. This isn't even an average flick, its certainly below average. However, each character gets a bit of development going into their past experiences in live and this plays out better as it becomes more involving for the viewer. Stay Alive isn't just a dumb film meant for blood and gore because if that was the case then it wouldn't even have received a PG-13 rating.
The cast here includes Jon Foster, Samaire Armstrong, Frankie Muniz and Sophia Bush just to name a few. Sadly the most famous actor here is the 5 foot 4 Frankie Muniz. An actor would be praising him because he is not a good actor. The lead Jon Foster is average at best which actually passable especially in these type of films. The direction here mainly focuses on him and his character has some interesting traumas that he might have to overcome as the film rolls by.
This is Director's William Brent Bell second feature and the effects are not that bad. He even co-wrote the script for Stay Alive, but one has to wonder whats the completely involvement for? Clearly, Bell is a videogame fanatic, thats what one would have to wonder. So, Bell isn't an expert and his film is flawed and silly, but makes the viewer ignore the silly plot to try and get a point across. Who knows, maybe there is even a hidden meaning in all of this, videogames can become reality the more you becoming addicted to it and it can take over your life...for real.
Stay Alive is a bad film anyway you look at it. Filmmaking wise, it has its surprises, but ultimately it is just average. Acting wise, it is just average. This felt like just a different version of Final Destination, especially the third part. Most videogame buffs will call this a solid film, thats laughable. The game in the film, however, is very good and would be interesting to actually play it. So, this is actually a game and a film combined, when you combine both industries, what you get is Stay Alive, not such a pretty picture afterall.
