Stay Alive

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with a character in a video game entering an eerie mansion. He is followed throughout the mansion by a woman in a red dress, who kills him by hanging him from a chandelier. The man playing the game is Loomis Crowley (Milo Ventimiglia), and the game is called Stay Alive. Loomis later wakes up to find his roommate and his roommate's girlfriend slaughtered. He is then hanged from a chandelier and killed, similar to the way he died in the game.
The next day at work, while talking with his boss, Miller (Adam Goldberg), Hutch (Jon Foster) learns that Loomis is dead. At the funeral, he meets a girl named Abigail (Samaire Armstrong). Afterward, Hutch goes to an internet cafe owned by his girlfriend, October (Sophia Bush), and her brother, Phineas (Jimmi Simpson), both avid gamers. Hutch has received a bag of Loomis' possessions, and while looking through it, Phin finds "Stay Alive". Although Hutch is reluctant, they decide to play as a group. Abigail and another friend, Swink (Frankie Muniz) join in, with Miller playing online from his office. The game is set in a derelict mansion on Garouge Plantation, but it won't start until the six players recite "The Prayer of Elizabeth." It's a creepy request for "all who resist" to perish so that their blood might keep her young. The players create their characters and fight through a cemetery full of evil ghosts of children, heading toward a mausoleum and tower. Miller touches a rose and the game directs him to pick it. A student of the occult, October explains that undead spirits cannot move across wild roses. Miller goes down to the basement, but the door slams shut and separates him from the other players. Upstairs, Abigail enters a secret passage in a wardrobe. In the room, she locates Elizabeth's diary with the prayer inside of it. Hutch notices that all the mirrors in the game are broken. Meanwhile, in the basement, Miller finds a torture room full of undead girls. Scared, he throws down the rose which dispels the spirits. Now out of roses, the woman in red can stab Miller's unprotected character. The words "Game Over" cross the screen and the group decides to call it a night. Minutes later, the woman in red appears in Millers office and kills him by stabbing him in the neck with conjoined scissor blades like the ones in the game.
Two detectives, Thibodeaux and King, question Hutch who knew all the homicide victims. Hutch realizes that Loomis and Miller both played "Stay Alive" right before they died, and that they both died the same way their characters died in the game. Later, October researches Countess Elizabeth Bathory, the woman in red, a real-life murderer. Bathory would drain young women of blood, bathing in it to maintain her youth. Her weakness was mirrors, because she couldn't stand to see herself growing old. Elsewhere, Phineas decides to play on alone. Keeping in touch with the others by cellphone, he tells them his character has found an unbreakable silver metal mirror which repels Bathory. Escaping outside, he is chased by a black horse-drawn carriage. Before he can be run down, Phin pauses the game, so his character doesn't die. Reassured that he's safe, Phin drives to meet the others. A demonic ghost-child startles him and he drives off the road. When he gets out of the car, the same horse carriage runs him over and kills him. The survivors agree to stop playing "Stay Alive" until they can find out more about it. However, Detective King, a former gamer, ignores Swink's warning and plays until Bathory rips his character's head apart with a trap. Undaunted, King tries to find "Stay Alive" at a video store, but the clerk has never heard of it. Moments after he enters his car, King is killed the same way his character did in the game.
Swink and October stay at Hutch's, while the other two search Loomis' house. Hutch tells Abigail why he hates fire; when he was a boy, his jealous father set their house on fire. Unable to move, he had to watch as his mother was burned alive. After his father went to prison, Hutch lived with Loomis' family and knows one window is always left unlocked. Inside, they locate Loomis' cellphone and find the name Jonathan Malkus (James Haven), the creator of "Stay Alive." Swink gets the corresponding address. As King's murder hits the news, the police arrive at Hutch's house. October and Swink escape and rejoin the other two at Loomis'.
October has discovered that the real Countess Bathory was locked in the tower of her estate as punishment for her gruesome acts. She lived on for years and vowed to one day return and seek revenge. A resurrected Bathory haunted the school at Garouge Plantation, killing many girls and keeping a diary. October reveals that the only way to kill the Countess is to drive three nails into her body to trap her evil soul. October then goes outside alone to smoke. She sees the countess enter a house that is still under construction and follows her. Once inside, October tries shoot the countess three times with a nail gun but this proves to be ineffective due to her being transparent. She tries to flee but a chain wraps around her ankle and she is hung upside down. Hutch and the others head over to the construction site to save her, but they arrive too late and October's throat is slashed by the countess, which leaves Hutch devastated. Since nobody was playing the game, the survivors realize that, once it has begun, the game can play by itself. The remaining three decide to search the house at Malkus' address. Swink volunteers to stay at the van and play the game on his laptop to distract Bathory, while Hutch and Abigail explore the house. They soon realize Malkus' house is actually on Garouge Plantation, Bathory's estate. Moreover, as he plays, Swink discovers he can cause items in the game to appear in reality.
Swink leads Hutch through the cemetery towards the tower, while Abigail is drawn to the closet and secret passage she'd found earlier in the game. In the hidden room, she finds the blades used by Bathory, who then attacks her. Hutch hears Abigail screams, and Swink guides him through the house to the closet. In the game, he throws roses at the Countess until Hutch arrives. The Countess begins to cheat and locks Swink out of the van, while her carriage rides towards his character. Swink breaks a window and moves his character just in time, but Bathory comes to kill him in real life, even though his character is still alive. Swink ditches the van and runs across a field, with Bathory's carriage close behind. He falls into a patch of rosebushes as the Countess exits her carriage, with her blades in hand. Hutch and Abigail return to the van to find the laptop screen marked "Game Over" and Swink's character dead.
Grabbing the laptop, Hutch and Abigail gather some of the wild roses. They then cross the cemetery to a mausoleum-type passageway leading to the tower. As a group of undead children pursue them, they drop numerous roses and make their way into Bathory's torture chamber. When Hutch starts up the staircase, a heavy door with a barred window slams shut, separating him from Abigail. She urges him to go after Bathory's body and perform the ritual, while she stays trapped with one last rose. Hutch reluctantly leaves and Bathory's phantom attacks Abigail. Hutch climbs to the top of the tower and finds the completely preserved body of Elizabeth Bathory. While Abigail fights to live, Hutch hammers three nails one by one into the inert body. When he finishes, the evil spirit stops attacking Abigail, and reanimates Bathory's body. Retreating, Hutch knocks over an oil lamp, spilling oil across the floor. Recalling that the Countess hates mirrors, Hutch uses his reflective silver laptop to repel her. Overcoming the fear of fire, he sets the room ablaze. Just then Swink, still alive and carrying more roses, bursts in with Abigail and rescues him. As Countess Bathory's body burns, the three walk away from the tower.
Meanwhile, in the video store, the shelves are now full of just released "Stay Alive" games. Intrigued, the employee puts a copy in the PlayStation 2. As the video game starts, voices are heard reciting Elizabeth's prayer. The evil phantom of Countess Elizabeth Bathory is then seen gazing out her tower window.

Tags: murder, flashback

Review:
I saw "Stay Alive" tonight, and I was surprised to come home and read reviews discounting it as stupid or pointless.Actually, I think that the plot was fairly substantial and well thought out for a horror movie--especially a PG-13 one.
Without worrying about when things are happening, you are free to instead concentrate on WHY they are happening.I really liked the video game plot--it was entertaining enough just to watch the gamers get so into it!
The colors were perfect to set the mood, and the cinematography was on the better side of average: no complaints here.Overall, although the ending was a bit of a let-down, I believe this is worth seeing if you like horror movies that also make you THINK--it's not all about scares.
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.
I like the idea of a real haunted horror video game.
The way Countess Bathory looks in the "game/movie", I would be surprised if she frightened the toddler we had behind us with his family.
You will leave wondering how a lot of stuff in the movie happened & have many unanswered questions but if you just want to enjoy a scary film, then this is the one for you.Also, I think you'll enjoy it if you're a gamer, as I am..
Just enjoy for what it is.This movie was basically The Ring meets Brainscan (A Edward furlong film from the 90s) It follows a group of kids who find a horror game.
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.
Cinematography was good, scripting very solid, plot very fine, all the elements worked together to make a really cool, fun horror flick set in the young folks' gaming subculture.
But the poor execution on both sides of the camera make this one big dud.If you've ever got a craving for a "killing someone in a video game makes them dead in real life" horror film take my advice and skip Stay Alive for the superior Brainscan..
After the mysterious death of an old friend,a group of teenagers find themselves in the possession of Stay Alive,a horror survival video game based on the gruesome story of Erzebet Bathory known as The Blood Countess.The group begins to play the grisly game and soon they are murdered one by one in the same method as the character they played in the game.As the line between the game world and the reality disappears,our heroes must find a way to defeat vicious Blood Countess.
"Stay Alive" is an incredibly poor teen slasher flick without any iota of suspense.Writer-director William Brent Bell doesn't have the damn clue how to make a watchable horror movie.The jump scares are irritating,the blood/gore level is almost non-existent and the story doesn't make sense.The dialogue is utterly bad and the acting of all involved is embarrassing."Stay Alive" is easily one of the worst mainstream horror flicks of 2006.Stay away from this stinking turd..
I mean usually I'm against PG-13 horror movies because without the blood and gore they just can't seem to make it work, but with Stay Alive the storyline and plot kept me on the edge of my seat the whole movie.
Strong plot that keeps you watching i suggest if you like horror movies without all the bloody gory stuff...Go see this its a great film and i suggest everyone to watch it, it's worth it..
Which, in the end, maybe is all we can hope for from movies.I liked the video game theme.
I think a horror movie based on a game is a great idea and this is it i sit through the whole thing and i thought it kicked butt.
So if your are a hard core gamer and love horror movies then you have to see this movie, it is a good movie for a PG13 and it has a video game in it what more can you ask for.
I thought I would be writing a different kind of review than the one I am currently writing.While the premise used in Stay Alive is nothing new, it feels a bit like the original Saw in its atmosphere, without plodding.
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."Stay Alive" is flawed, but it is very entertaining and underrated in IMDb. The story is not scary, but a pleasant adventure with good special effects, the actors and actresses have good performances and show good chemistry.
And it is a movie that really makes you think - on a lot of different levels.The story-line of a video game that was more than a video game was intriguing, and following the friends as the truth dawned and they sought the solutions and pitted their game-playing, problem solving skills added depth, and gave an insight into the online-video-game-playing culture that is an important social interaction setup for so many young people these days.Regarding the Computer Generated Images effects that 'intrude' into the 'real world' of the movie, I found them very effective.
Polished performances, actors are eye-candy, unpredictable, magic realism, engages the viewers, audience cares what happens to the gamers,world-class visual effects, school of Corman directing expertise for those who are discerning when it comes to knowing what's important in a perfect grade B excursion in the vintage horror genre; atmospheric; devastating nemesis, terror is left to the capable imagination of real fans of the genre; delightful treat for video game fans; will make the viewer think twice about the next video game purchase; nightmarish, goosebumps and cold sweaty palms waiting for the incredible denouement; kudos to William Brent Bell's skillful direction and joint authorship of script with erudite Matthew Peterman..
I think this movie was one shockers of 2006 it was very underrated i liked it.It kept me interested and i was scared at a lot of the points.this movie was pure horror i thought it had a clever ending.very gory for a pg 13 movie but very good at the same time.it also makes those gamers out there think.it was also very funny.if u like horrors with good plots and clever endings just c this movie u wont b disappointed believe me my over all rating was a 8/10 i hope to see stay alive 2 out some time in the next few years i will b first in line.
When I first heard of Stay Alive, I was thinking "Oh great, another ring rip-off" But after seeing a trailer and reading more about it, Stay Alive seem like a great concept.After a mysterious death, a group of intense gamers stumble upon an underground game called Stay Alive.
I'll admit idea is interesting and could be turned into a good movie but this is not it.First of all choosing real life person, countess Bathory, is stupid move that adds absolutely nothing to the story.
The premise is pretty ridiculous, a haunted video game, having said that the plots of all these films usually have some ludicrous element, my main problem with this one is that they don't even bother trying to explain it!
I think it also takes itself seriously which is a bad move, these films are supposed to be hammy and cheesy, but this one actually seems to think it is a seriously scary film which it is not.If you want a stupid horror movie about teenagers getting sliced up stick with Urban Legend, Friday the 13th and the like, they are all terrible but at least they have a bit of fun..
Overall I enjoyed it and it definitely got me into the mood to play some classic horror video games..
How clever!Directed by William Brent Bell (who?), and featuring an unimpressive cast of twenty-somethings that you might have seen before, but probably can't remember where or what the hell their names are, this is an extremely derivative piece of film-making aimed squarely at the PG-13 horror set; seasoned scary film watchers will no doubt find Stay Alive extremely tedious, highly predictable and not in the least bit frightening.The poorly developed plot follows a group of gamers with extremely daft names (October, Loomis, Phineus, Hutch, and Swink!?!) who attempt to unravel the mystery behind the deadly game before they too become victims.
Eventually, they discover that it is the evil spirit of the legendary Countess Elizabeth Bathory who is killing anyone who dares to play, and that their only hope of survival is to continue with the game to the end.With a story as dumb as this, viewers should expect a film with loose ends aplenty, not one iota of logic (who made the game, how, and why is never explained), very little in the way of scares or gore, and a dumb closing scene to leave the door open forGod forbida sequel..
Would've like to see the Blood Countess herself cause more havok.I loved the video game element but let's be real this was the ring all over again.
Think about it: Person gets video/website/video game, they've either heard bad things about, know death/ evil is connected with said artifact or know you simply aren't supposed to have it (like this game) and finally with knowing you aren't supposed to watch/view/play said things, you get sucked into the evil world.
i just watched it today November 3 2006 and i was home alone and when the characters started to see things in the corners of there eyes i thought i did and i was getting really creep ed out.even though people say it is boring it kept me entertained and guessing from beginning to end.i do recommend this movie if you don't want to by it rent it it was very original to me and seriously it did creep me out and i don't really get creep ed out that bad by movies but this was more scary than the grudge!!
I personally liked this movie.It was pretty entertaining at points.There's only a few flaws.Like one some of the acting was off.Example lets say if someone suppose to be worried they wouldn't look worried.Another is puttin Frakie Muniz in this movie.No disrespect.He made a good addition.Its just that I've seen him in comedies lookin worried and when he looked worried here I'm thinking bout the comedys.But anyways,Another is the way it ended.I ain't gonna spoil it cause thats not me.Other then those things the movie was entertaining.My suggestion to you if you like scary films and u wanna watch one,take your ten dollars and check out this movie..
The Only Horror Movies I Like Are The Ones That Have Good Story Lines And Thats Why I Love This Movie.
If ya love scary movies, and ya love video game based movies this is a must...When it comes to movie on this basis, this one blows the rest out of the water...its a must see, i loved it and you will too.......With plenty of action, surprises and some of the creepiest cg and story line i've seen in a while, this movie would go to the top of my list when it comes to go and watch again...and I'm not one to see a movie at the theater more than once...the best what to sum it up is a haunted video game horror, with scenes that will make the most experience horror movie goers jump in their seats.....
The violence is not gratuitously graphic like we have seen in some recent horror movies, which is, again, a good thing for the younger viewer.
While the "villan" of the game (Elizabeth Bathory) was a historical figure (The Blood Countess), they changed a few details about her history - but I don't suppose too many people will notice that.Good date movie.
3) If you are going to make a game about survival horror films, research the subject first so you at least SOUND like you know what you're talking about.
On the plus side, the plot is easy to follow and makes sense (as much as a movie about a video game that kills you can be.) There are some cool moments when the characters blend the real world and the game together, but they are very few and are all in the last 30 minutes of the movie.
i also hope they make a sequel to stay alive the way they end lives you to believe just maybe the real game is not over.
This could have been a GREAT movie, but it was so lazy and badly done that it turned out to be a tweeny load of rubbish in my opinion.It was such a good idea - kids play a video game, you die in the game you die in real life.
The acting is surprisingly good, especially for such young actors in this type of movie, there are elements of truth in the plot (regarding The Countess) and efforts seem to have been made to keep "Stay Alive" from being another stereotypical horror movie that leaves few lasting impressions.
If you want to see a horror movie with less blood, nudity and sex than usual, featuring good acting, a fresh angle and without the standard mindless script/plot, then "Stay Alive" might appeal to you.
In turn people who don't play video games at all and just want to see a good mainstream slasher will be turned off by the utter geek factor of the film.
Subtle touches such as characters snorting coke seem thrown in for no reason at all but to appeal to a teenage fascination of drugs which I find unnecessary, with some poor CGI and cardboard cutout characters we have a useless movie.Stay Alive screams "you are a stupid teenager we know everything you involve yourself with these days which is video games, drugs, drooling over hot young women and forking out moolah for by the numbers horror, you will enjoy this and give us money".
The premise of a horror film based on a video game with some historical background, sounded original at first.After watching Stay Alive, I'm deeply disappointed.
Basically, whoever plays this video game "Stay Alive" is pulled into an inescapable puzzle where, if your player dies, you die in real life.
The plot was really interesting of how a video-game kills people in real life and it sorta copied the Asian horror film, which was made into a terrible American remake, "The Ring", so on that note, the director gets my props because he did something new without copying it for another film or genre.
I thought it had good game graphics for the starting of the movie.
I am a huge horror film fanatic and I have seen just about anything that has come out that is said to be scary and this is by far in the top 3.I will be thinking about this movie for many nights to come.
I love the movie but I will never play the game.I am too scared..
What this movie does have is simple yet slightly intricate plot the leaves you wondering what is going on and why is a video game killing people.Each character is distinct but not much else is put into character development, which is good because it doesn't distract you from the story line.
I Gotta say quite an Entertaining Movie for People who are completely bored and wanna watch Some people gaming for their lifeyes I know corny name, corny storyline But the story is very logical Altho the acting is awful Graphics are average But the Directing is on the spot Full of suspense during a deathLots of swearing I Don't see why its rated 3.5 it deserves at least a 6 watch this movie, if you don't like it you've only wasted 1 and a half hours of your lifeI Personally Enjoyed this movie along with 5 of my Friends, and after that we went to the Arcade and played a new just in game also called Stay Alive which was pretty freaky and is based on the game only you are in the Countess's House Overall a 7 out of 10.
Great movie for those who like games/horror.
I know its fake but come on tell me when you see this movie you don't want to play this and the women that kills you is real not fake but all I'm really trying to say if you love horror you loves this movie unless you one of those die hard horror movie nut then just go watch the shining but for the rest of us that enjoy and good horror film you'll love and for all the gamers out you made enjoy this movie but there is not a hole of game in but you'll love it takes a different turn.Plan and simple horror movie that gamers and people who like horror movies will like..
Do you like creepy video games where your life is on the line?It was just a matter of time before a movie came out that took you into the game world for real!