Stay Alive (2006)

This tries to mix the Final Destination formula into the gamer community. It doesn't really succeed. Apart from aging faster than a dayfly (that's especially accurate for the "special game effects"), the story does not give you that much. Plus it is cheating and you can ask any gamer about that. It is an absolute no go! Story is also predictable, where you can see the characters fate a mile off. While it tries to stay on the logical side of things (as much as possible), even that cannot be achieved entirely. The movie did not have a large budget (obviously), so you might be willing to cut it some slack. Especially because it did achieve to cast Mr. Muniz (who's better known for his TV character) here. But that is up to you, how low you want to put the bar.

I was really looking forward to seeing this movie. As a gamer, a HUGE fan of survival horror games (Silent Hill especially), and someone who absolutely loves supernatural horror, I thought this movie had the potential to be like a dream, or nightmare, come true. Unfortunately, the writers of the movie must not really be into gaming, and even that would be okay if the movie creators actually did a little research. Stay Alive is a beta version of a computer game, Frankie Muniz uses an alienware laptop, but it's played with playstation controllers (I think-at least its a PS controller on the movie cover). The tester plays the game with a couple of friends, and if you die in the game, you die for real. (I even found the tag line of the movie annoying.."you die in the game, you die for real" sounds too much like a nightmare on elm st's +you die in your dreams, you die for real.")I was disappointed in this movie in the first ten minutes. The main character, Hutch, works as some kind of clerk in an office. His boss calls him in to ask advice on the game he's playing, Silent Hill 4. He needs to know how to beat the last boss. Hutch tells him to "dop the hyperblaster-it has unlimited ammo but drop it anyway-then go down the stairs to the boss, and she'll just die. First of all, no last boss just dies when you do nothing. Second of all, there is no hyperblaster in SH4. Finally, the last boss in SH4 is a man, not a woman. I realize I may sound like a nerd, but I honestly think if you're going to make a movie about a survival horror game and you want to reference a game, at the very least wikipedia it first.So anyway Hutch ends up with Stay Alive, and he gets together with some gamer friends and one girl who has never played anything before, and they all play. These are supposed to be serious gamers. So at one point Hutch's character is standing in a room with a fireplace and a closet, and there's a GLOWING LIGHT coming out of the closet and the door is ajar. Pretty obvious you'd think.. but he doesn't see it. The girl who had never played a game before goes "wait! wait! the wardrobe!' to which Hutch responds "NICE eye!!!!" The friends then praise her for noticing the completely obvious hidden room. If he's a serious gamer and he didn't know to check the door with the glowing light coming out of it..he should find a new hobby.Besides silly things like that though, the movie isn't all bad. I wouldn't call it scary, but it was a cool idea. The story wasn't explained as well as I would have liked, and there were some things left unanswered (I noticed people saying they never said who made the game, but they did) for example, the cops were looking to arrest Hutch bc he knew all the murder victims. When the cops show up at the house his friends are hanging out in, they run (Nevermind that Hutch had an alibi for all the murders, apparently knowing people is all it takes to be thrown in jail.) and at the end of the movie, I guess the cops just give up? There were a few loose ends that were kind of annoying. Altogether though it's worth a watch. The idea was solid, the game scenes weren't bad, and if this actually comes out as a game, I would definitely play it. As a gamer it offended me a little, but as a horror movie fan I liked it, because it was a unique idea and hasn't been done to death. Overall I'm glad I watched it, but I don't think I would sit through it again.

It was...bad. However, bear in mind. It's a PG-13 movie. So, don't expect any blood or gore. Being a slasher film...it was doomed from the start. First off, the acting. This is by far Frankie Muniz's worst role. I can't begin to comprehend his logic in choosing this role. Oh...God... He's...just NOT meant the play the knowledgeable one. The script needed to be burned. On to the plot. It's pretty much if .hack was a slasher film, only...far, far worse. Dying in the game equals dying in real life... Um, so don't play it? Destroy the game? On the other hand, the game's graphics resemble a Sims 2, Silent Hill 3 hybrid, which isn't bad by any means. I would have played it in 2006, but World of Warcraft had already eaten my soul by then, but I noticed, one of the characters "paused" the game! How the heck do you pause an online game? Another plot hole, games are a pain in the you know what to make. They require hours, days, even weeks or years of beta testing before they're released. Wouldn't some of the programmers have died, and the game would have never been remotely finished? Bottom line. It's a PG-13 slasher flick with a paper thin plot. There are good PG-13 horror movies, but this isn't one of them.

The premise for this movie really isn't too different from other horror movies. Something normal that you wouldn't think could kill you...can. The same basics have been used with movies, the internet, phones, etc, and well now with video games. So then why did I give this movie the rating I did? Well maybe I just really like B horror movies, or being different and liking something that's normally hated. Either way I actually thought this movie was pretty good.There was a time that I liked playing a lot of video games, so maybe this movie kind of brings that side back to me. Granted I think the visuals they used for the game and just really the game they made up in general are better then most of this movie. It seemed to me that they really worked harder on making the game look cool than making the movie better then it was.It's time to be nice though. It did what it was suppose to. It kept me entertained and didn't leave me in a bad or confused mood at the end. Sure the acting really wasn't all that great but I did enjoy the death scenes for the most part. The plot while kind of old I'll admit was pretty interesting.The only thing I really don't get is why use Elizabeth Bathory? They could have just as easily put a random made up ghost in that place. Why put someone from history that really didn't fit too well in that role? Well at least I can say they did pick a creepy person. Although Elizabeth Bathory in life was more scary than this movie will every be and for that matter probably scarier than any horror movie I've ever seen. That's just my opinion on it.Getting back on track. I don't see how this movie is God awful, not saying it's great by any means. Just saying it might be worth a quick watch if you're a horror fan. I enjoyed it for the most part and I'm sure I can't be the only one.