Stay Alive (2006)

Director:

William Brent Bell

Writers (WGA):

William Brent Bell (written by) &
Matthew Peterman (written by)

Release Date:

24 March 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

It's the game of life and death....

Plot:

For a group of teens, the answer to the mysterious death of their old friend lies within the world of an online video game based on the true story of an ancient noblewoman known as the Blood Countess.

Plot Keywords:

Blood | Blood Countess | Video Game | Hanging | Tower

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Jon Foster	...	Hutch
Samaire Armstrong	...	Abigail
Frankie Muniz	...	Swink
Jimmi Simpson	...	Phineus
Wendell Pierce	...	Detective Thibodeaux
Milo Ventimiglia	...	Loomis Crowley
Sophia Bush	...	October
Adam Goldberg	...	Miller Banks
Billy Slaughter	...	Rex
Nicole Oppermann	...	Sarah
Monica Monica	...	Mrs. Crowley
Rio Hackford	...	Detective King
Billy Louviere	...	Fidget
J. Richey Nash	...	Young Rookie (as Richey Nash)
Maria Kalinina	...	Countess

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for horror violence, disturbing images, language, brief sexual and drug content.

Runtime:

USA:85 min | 100 min (Unrated Director's Cut) | Argentina:85 min | Germany:75 min (TV version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Australia:M | UK:15 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:PG | Malaysia:18SG | Ireland:15A | Norway:15 | Finland:K-18 | Canada:14A | Philippines:PG-13 | Australia:MA (director's cut) | Argentina:13 | Singapore:M18 (director's cut) | Germany:16 (director's cut) | Italy:T | France:U (with warning) | Brazil:16 | South Korea:15

Filming Locations:

Esplanade Mall - 1401 West Esplanade, Kenner, Louisiana, USA

Company:

Hollywood Pictures

Trivia:

Ben Foster was going to play the role of Hutch O'Neill, but gave the role to his brother Jon Foster instead because he thought it was better suited for him.

Goofs:

Continuity: At the beginning of the movie, the mansion is shown with Loomis playing. Later when the rest of the group plays, the layout of the mansion is completely different. Towards the end of the movie, the actual mansion Hutch and Abigail are in and the mansion Swink plays in the game are different from the others. The layout of the game mansion and the live mansion never match the previous.

Quotes:

Abigail: I hate telling people the truth and watching 'em get embarassed for that!

Movie Connections:

References Q*bert (1983/I) (VG)

Soundtrack:

Sweet Dreams

Good Concept, Lazy Execution

Stay Alive is a new game in which you have to stay alive or suffer the consequences in real life, it's a pretty cool concept and one that could have been executed way better than it actually was.

Surprisingly the film is far less cheesy than i figured it would be, the cast are quite convincing, albeit as pretty shallow characters and the direction, editing and general production are adequate enough. What let it down was the way it sets out the rules and then picks which ones it will follow depending on what stage the story was at, contriving every step of the way to make it fit.

It was mildly entertaining to watch and there is a decent sense of tension throughout, although the scares were all a bit cheap and clichéd, and it definitely didn't need the twist at the end, i hope it's not a setup for a sequel.

5/10