STAY ALIVE
Year Of Release : 2006
Director : William Brent Bell
Genre : Horror
Rating : **
Director : William Brent Bell
Genre : Horror
Rating : **
'Stay Alive' is yet another one of those horror movies where reality and alternative reality crossover. Obviously the high watermark for this kind of horror film is 1984's 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' where the dream world crosses the boundaries of real life. Other examples include 'Ringu' and 'Candyman'. Unfortunately 'Stay Alive' doesn't even come close to those movies.
'Stay Alive' is the story of a small group of gamers who discover an underground computer game called 'Stay Alive', and if they die in the game, they die in real life. Throughout the film, the characters realise that the spirit of Elizabeth Bathory, other wise known as 'The Countess Of Blood' is concealed in game, and is released whenever somebody plays. On paper, that actually sounds quite interesting. However, concept and execution are unfortunately two very different things. The dialogue is dreadful, the acting is terrible, and the actual horror set pieces are very poorly edited and shot.
Looking at the poster for 'Stay Alive', you may expect the movie to be in the 'torture porn' subgenre of horror which has become very popular over the past decade. Actually, the horror is quite understated and could easily be seen as a pre/mid teen horror/slasher film. In that sense, 'Stay Alive' is made with it's target audience clearly in mind. However, just because a movie is aimed at a younger viewer, it does not mean that the filmakers can create a film which is so lacking in plot, intiative and imagination. The actual murder are scenes are very poorly edited, so much in the way that you have to take the movie's word that the character actually was killed. Many murders involve the lazy 'cut - away at the impact of death' technique, which ends up making the film boring and repetitive.
Besides this, the cast are not too good either. The most famous face you will in 'Stay Alive' is that of Frankie Muniz, of 'Agent Cody Banks' and 'Malcolm In The Middle' fame. The rest of the cast are amateur actors who don't know whether to scream or laugh at the same time. Adding to the mix of terribleness is the inclusion of some ridiculously stupid character names; Hutch, Swink, Phineus, October and my personal favourite, Detective Thibodeaux!
Nonetheless, there was one minute of the film which I found highly amusing. It is conceded that the Countess can be repelled by presenting a wild rose to her upon her attack. One of the young girls is given a rose to protect herself by the hero of the movie. As soon as he leaves her to save the day, she starts to pluck the petals of the rose, saying 'Loves me, love me not'. When all of the rose petals are taken off, she is immediately attacked. Clearly what you would do when given an item to protect yourself is to play a childish game. This one moment actually saved the film from a one star rating, despite it undermining the 'intelligence' of the plot.
The ending of the film, however, is the worst part because it clearly sets up the idea for a sequel. Thankfully producers saw the huge box office failure that was 'Stay Alive' and therefore we/I haven't had to suffer 'Stay Alive 2 : The Same Crap As Before'.
'Stay Alive' is the story of a small group of gamers who discover an underground computer game called 'Stay Alive', and if they die in the game, they die in real life. Throughout the film, the characters realise that the spirit of Elizabeth Bathory, other wise known as 'The Countess Of Blood' is concealed in game, and is released whenever somebody plays. On paper, that actually sounds quite interesting. However, concept and execution are unfortunately two very different things. The dialogue is dreadful, the acting is terrible, and the actual horror set pieces are very poorly edited and shot.
Looking at the poster for 'Stay Alive', you may expect the movie to be in the 'torture porn' subgenre of horror which has become very popular over the past decade. Actually, the horror is quite understated and could easily be seen as a pre/mid teen horror/slasher film. In that sense, 'Stay Alive' is made with it's target audience clearly in mind. However, just because a movie is aimed at a younger viewer, it does not mean that the filmakers can create a film which is so lacking in plot, intiative and imagination. The actual murder are scenes are very poorly edited, so much in the way that you have to take the movie's word that the character actually was killed. Many murders involve the lazy 'cut - away at the impact of death' technique, which ends up making the film boring and repetitive.
Besides this, the cast are not too good either. The most famous face you will in 'Stay Alive' is that of Frankie Muniz, of 'Agent Cody Banks' and 'Malcolm In The Middle' fame. The rest of the cast are amateur actors who don't know whether to scream or laugh at the same time. Adding to the mix of terribleness is the inclusion of some ridiculously stupid character names; Hutch, Swink, Phineus, October and my personal favourite, Detective Thibodeaux!
Nonetheless, there was one minute of the film which I found highly amusing. It is conceded that the Countess can be repelled by presenting a wild rose to her upon her attack. One of the young girls is given a rose to protect herself by the hero of the movie. As soon as he leaves her to save the day, she starts to pluck the petals of the rose, saying 'Loves me, love me not'. When all of the rose petals are taken off, she is immediately attacked. Clearly what you would do when given an item to protect yourself is to play a childish game. This one moment actually saved the film from a one star rating, despite it undermining the 'intelligence' of the plot.
The ending of the film, however, is the worst part because it clearly sets up the idea for a sequel. Thankfully producers saw the huge box office failure that was 'Stay Alive' and therefore we/I haven't had to suffer 'Stay Alive 2 : The Same Crap As Before'.
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