Anyone that knows me, knows that I love me some video games. I also tend to like horror movies above almost all other types of movies. In the past, I have watched several really bad movies that involve either video games directly, or technology, or the internet. None of these have ever been scary. That may be because it is pretty hard to scare me with a movie. Horror movies, more so than other films, tend to fall into the same tropes over and over. In dealing with two genres that I am fairly familiar with, it’s even more difficult to get me.
Stay Alive is about a group of kids that play a video game that is only in “beta”. Naturally, it’s a survival horror game, but one that takes that title much more serious. As the poster clearly states, “If you die in the game, you die for real.” One by one the kids start getting killed. They soon realize that each time one of their friends dies, it happens just like the in-game death. So now they take it upon themselves to stop not only the game but whoever is actively killing them all.
I found it hard to care even the slightest about these kids in this movie. As we are introduced to the cast, there is “Liam” from Always Sunny In Philadelphia, “Malcolm”, from Malcolm in the Middle, and Adam Goldberg. My first and lasting thought on this was that it was meant to be a comedy. Sadly, I don’t think that was the intention of the director or the casting director. Maybe that’s just my knowledge of the actor’s previous roles. I dunno.
Stay Alive is full of “jump scares” and visual tricks to creep the viewer out. However, if you have ever seen “The Ring” you know what you are getting into here. No real special effects to speak of, however for a game that I guess was being played during the PS2’s heyday, it looked pretty good. I probably would have played it. Though the reaction of the characters to force feedback in the controllers is weird. Like it was some magical property of the game. I laughed out loud when the main character was trying to explain that the video game was what was killing their friends. He goes on and on trying to convince them this is possible. When the girl he was talking to thinks that it is the ghost of some woman from an old ghost story though, he thinks this is utterly preposterous. The one part I did like was when Malcolm was advising the main character on how to get around the house and helping him by doing things in the game. That was a neat idea that should have been more prevalent.
As the movie wrapped up, it ended *spoilers* with a guy in some generic game store (that was obviously a GameStop) opening a box of this “Stay Alive” game and popping it in a PS2 demo station. Pan up and BLAM! There it is on the cover of, none other than, Game Informer. At that point, I woke my wife up because I was laughing so hard. I seriously thought that the movie was going to end with someone dying because they didn’t pre-order the game. Having said all that, Stay Alive is worth it if you enjoy video games, know how they are made and work and are in need of a good laugh. Upon resolution of the conflict, though, there was one glaring plot hole; Who made the game, and then shipped it out? That part of the movie would have been hilarious to see. Some weird spectral character slaving day and night over code. Sending that code to cert and waiting for it to pass. Maybe they will release a part two for this and call it “Stay Alive… Long Enough For The DLC”. A man can dream.
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