Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
|
Reviews
Amazon.co.uk Review
Straight from the set-'em-up and knock-'em-down school of teen-horror filmmaking, Stay Alive gives literal meaning to the parental lament, "Those games will kill you someday." Not that you'll find any parents in this gimmicky thriller set in New Orleans; they're conspicuously absent when Hutch (Jon Foster) and his hardcore gamer pals discover "Stay Alive," a mysterious next-generation computer game that has a nasty way of precipitating mayhem, horror, and death. If your character dies in the game, you're doomed to die in identically grisly fashion in real life. So, just don't play the game, right? WRONG. This being a teen horror flick with a screenplay that makes no sense whatsoever, the gamer pals (including victim #2, Hutch's boss, played with game-addicted fervor by Adam Goldberg) obsessively investigate the game and its creepy Ring-like origins in the 17th century murder spree of a woman known as "The Blood Countess." Because movies like this are best viewed on a steady diet of Pop Tarts and Ritalin, Jimmi Simpson earns top honors as the gamer pal with the creepiest behavior, and Malcolm in the Middle fans will enjoy the presence of Frankie Muniz as a gamer geek whose primary fashion statement consists of grimy T-shirts and green plastic poker-visors. While not nearly as fun or clever as the Final Destination movies, Stay Alive delivers a few good deaths while blatantly stealing most of its horror highlights from Ju-On and other Japanese horror hits. It's junk from start to finish, but its target audience of mallrats and gamers (especially those with attention deficit disorder, which helps to ignore the plot holes) won't mind a bit.--Jeff Shannon
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This film has oficially murdered my beliefs that horror films may be getting better. Story: A few computer nerds play on a freaky game. Turns out the game is alive and starts killing people the way they die in the game. A good premise huh? But the film rockets straight past the promising opportunity, straight to no-hopers land. Even though well shot and surprisingly well acted, the film just doesn't work. Shame, really, because it could have been so much more. Ofcorse Frankie adds a little sparkle, but unfortunately doesn't save the film from being a silly little mess that has all been done before better.
Just crossing the 'acceptable' line, but there are some far better horrors out at the moment, so you can afford to pass on this one. Worth a rent, but do not buy; make sure to have a couple of drinks before watching to make the experience slightly more acceptable. 5 OUT OF 10.
P.J.
Just crossing the 'acceptable' line, but there are some far better horrors out at the moment, so you can afford to pass on this one. Worth a rent, but do not buy; make sure to have a couple of drinks before watching to make the experience slightly more acceptable. 5 OUT OF 10.
P.J.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Obsessive gamer Loomis rings his friend Hutch to tell him he's been playing a new game called 'Stay Alive'. The next morning Loomis, and his two flatmates are all dead. Hutch goes to the funeral of his friend, as is given a bag of possesions belonging to Loomis, by his sister. There is a copy of Stay Alive amongst his belongings. Hutch gets together all his fellow game fanatics to play Stay Alive as a tribute to Loomis. The game is based on the life of the bloody Countess, Elizabeth Bathory. Soon it becomes apparent that the game is exerting a malign influence, as those who play it are starting to die the very same way that their characters died in the game.
I really enjoyed this film. Okay it does get a bit silly in places, but I loved the idea of an ancient evil using a piece of modern technology as a portal to return to the physical world. I also liked the way that the game starts to encroach more and more into reality, where death could be facing our protagonists as the Countess regains her power. Its very enjoyable, if a bit silly at times. I thought the cast did well as a whole, with Frankie Muniz the stanout for me as nervous, geeky Swink.
The segments where we see the gamers playing Stay Alive are also very stylish.
A very enjoyable film. 4 out of 5
I really enjoyed this film. Okay it does get a bit silly in places, but I loved the idea of an ancient evil using a piece of modern technology as a portal to return to the physical world. I also liked the way that the game starts to encroach more and more into reality, where death could be facing our protagonists as the Countess regains her power. Its very enjoyable, if a bit silly at times. I thought the cast did well as a whole, with Frankie Muniz the stanout for me as nervous, geeky Swink.
The segments where we see the gamers playing Stay Alive are also very stylish.
A very enjoyable film. 4 out of 5
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
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.
"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.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
original effort on small budget?Oh yeah.
All seriousness aside if youre looking for a spooky original horror movie,look no further.It looks as though its made on a small budget but that doesn't stop it being an enjoyable... Read more
Published 26 days ago by J. Jordan
Know your history!
On the surface this film has a pretty basic story line ie. kids do something dumb and die horribly. However, there's rather more thought behind this film than is readily... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Wilde woman
stay alive
bought it as a sophia bush fan, not one of the best roles for her, didn't like the dvd, had a bit of a make-belife theme to it. condition was great.
Published 8 months ago by louise
Great little film for computer game fans (only)
This ambitiously current, light thriller inserts computer game virtual reality into horror. And...does it quite well. Read more
Published 9 months ago by T. BROOKES
BETTER THAN EXPECTED
The story of these kids playing a game they they aren't meant to,and finding their mates getting killed off in the same manner as their characters in the game,is actually a pretty... Read more
Published 13 months ago by BAZ316
pixie
the film is about the computer game
if you play the game you die in
real life
its a good film
if you play the game you die in
real life
its a good film
Published 13 months ago by vampire
Project "Stay alive"
I won't go into the plot, that's been done. All i will say is i picked this little gem up, not knowing what i had found. Creepy & compelling is all i can say. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Polyhymnia63
It will help you Stay Alive
Open scene is live-action of an extremely scary-looking video game, a game called Stay Alive. Gamer-kid Loomis calls his friend Hutch and tells him the game is awesome and has to... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Ms. L. J. Braisby
AWFUL!
I wasn't expecting anything special when I watched this, and I would've eccepted it as a bog standard 'horror' if it wasn't for their portrayal of Countess Erzsebet Bathory, one of... Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2009 by Ellen B. Smith
Stay alive DVD
I was very impressed with my purchase from Amazon.
It was a DVD called Stay alive. It's about a group
of teenagers who start to play an on line game, but the events... Read more
It was a DVD called Stay alive. It's about a group
of teenagers who start to play an on line game, but the events... Read more
Published on 3 May 2009 by crazed cat women
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
