Stay Alive (2006)

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.

Director:

William Brent Bell

Writers:

William Brent Bell, Matthew Peterman

Stars:

Jon Foster, Samaire Armstrong, Frankie Muniz

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
April Wood	...	Loretta
Monica Monica	...	Mrs. Crowley
Rio Hackford	...	Detective King
Billy Louviere	...	Fidget
J. Richey Nash	...	Young Rookie (as Richey Nash)

Storyline

Loomis Crowley is testing the underground game Stay Alive with his friends Sarah and Rex. When the game is over, Loomis finds Rex and Sarah dead in their room, and he is pushed by a shadow from the staircase, breaking the banister and hanging the same way he died in the game. Loomis' sister, Emma, gives his game to his best friend, Hutch. They, and his friends Miller, Phineus with his sister October, Swink and Abigail play the game together. When Miller and Phineus die the same way they died in the game, the survivors disclose that the game is based on the life of the evil Countess Elizabeth Bathory. She was buried alive in the tower of her real state in the Geronge Plantation. With the police chasing them, and after the death of October, the survivors reach the house and try to find the corpse of the Countess to destroy her fiend.

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Plot Keywords:

countess | group of friends | tower | ghost | game reality crossover | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Russia] Touchstone Pictures [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 March 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Stay Alive

Filming Locations:

Fort Pike, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$7,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$10,726,406, 26 March 2006, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$23,086,480

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$27,105,095, 12 July 2006

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hollywood Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment, Endgame Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min 100 min (Unrated Director's Cut) 75 min (TV)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The mansion that appears in the video-game at the beginning of the movie is a carbon copy of the one where the action of SEGA's 1996 light gun shooter The House of the Dead (1996).

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Goofs

(at around 1h 7 mins) When Hutch shoves Abigail into the crypt and closes the door, there is no artificial light source. After Hutch fends off the phantom carriage and enters the crypt, there is still no artificial light source. Upon pushing the lid of the sarcophagus open, there is still no artificial light source. When the camera pans back out to them pushing the lid, a lantern appears out of nowhere and is lit.

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Quotes

Stay Alive Game Voice-Over: When fear criples you, when death's dark shadow surrounds you, drop a rose. It will help you... stay alive.
Swink Sylvania: We should drop one when we meet up with a boss we can't face.
October Bantum: Yeah, the undead can't cross the twig of a wild rose.
Phineus Bantum: That is what happens when you read too much goth chick lit.

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Alternate Versions

DVD is 100 min Unrated Director's Cut, versus the theatrical 85 min release. This alternate version includes a new character and subplot. It also features graphic nudity and more gore.

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Connections

Referenced in Impossible Dreams (2011)

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Soundtracks

Sweet Dreams
Written by Graham Russell
Produced by John Frizzell and Frederik Wiedmann
Performed by Jess Harnell

User Reviews

Coming Out

The kiddie horror market continues to baffle me.

Films like this get pounded by the critics as unimaginative, but them often achieve high viewer ratings on IMDb. This movie suffers low ratings in both spheres but is making money. Lots of it.

The genre demands predictability: some kids die, some survive (always including and often just a boy-girl pair), and at the end, the very end we see how the evil has survived to threaten the exiting audience.

I'll tell you why I went to see it, because I like movies where the "movie within" overlaps in some way with the containing movie. In this case, its a video game; same same. Some viewers compare this to "Jumanji," but in that case, the players enter the game, a fantasy world. In this case, the game enters the real world, more in the "Ringu" fashion.

Is it scary? Are any of these? Who cares? What I care about is whether the folding is done coolly, like in "eXistenZ." And whether the characters are as clever as the fold. A couple of these guys were fun, but typically the girls were clones.

I saw this with "I, Madman." Similar values: clever fold, boring presentation.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.