Stay Alive -- 2006 -- R (UR)

I watched the Unrated DVD version of the film.The DVD had a strange character building thing that I could never figure out. If you have a clue on this one, feel free to say what it is supposed to do. I even matched up one of the characters, and it still kicked me out. Anyway...

This film takes some of the modern fun stuff and makes it evil. I guess someone took a lesson from the Japanese here. So this time, the concept is that there is a video game that is horrific and violent, but the catch is however you die in the game, that's how you will die in real life. This is understandably disturbing for those who have played and died. Then the game realizes no one is playing it anymore, so it starts playing itself to get more of them in its clutches. Now they're forced into it.

This was a great concept that played out superbly in some areas of the flm, particularly in the third act when reality and the game were actually interacting. Really cool. They even used the rumble function against us. When you hear that tell-tale controller vibration, look out.

But we were not without flaws, of course. Had ourselves a slew of horror movie stupidity to go with the cleverness which took a lot of the respect out of this film. Got your mass of characters with distinctly stereotypical personalities so you know them quickly and understand them just as fast. People knock once, and enter other people's houses. They investigate weird noises and movements. They go into dangerous places alone. When they are all alone, they say, "Hello? Is anyone there?" And it was setting itself up so well...

For the gorehound in you, you won't be totally satisfied, but you won't be totally disappointed either. There's some splatter, just not much of it, which is fine by me. I'm more into suspense than splatter anyway.

One point that was just ridiculous...where in the world does one have access to police case records and photographs that they can print off? I mean, seriously. That kind of stuff isn't public. I don't care who you are. This guy just logged onto the net and the background said FBI. My disbelief was faltering in its suspension.

Cool concept and some good scenes and moments. It did follow its own rules, though the characters were cliche. Not the worst movie of its kind, by any means, but it could have been much better.