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Stay Alive
R1 - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: TJ McDonald & Noor Razzak (5th October 2006). |
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The Film
 "Stay Alive" is the story of Hutch O'Neill (Jon Foster), a computer gamer whose close childhood friend Loomis Crowley (Milo Ventiniglia) is mysteriously murdered. After attending the funeral, Hutch finds among his late friend's possessions a gruesome horror game which has yet to go on sale. He and his gaming friends including uber-nerd Swink Sylvania (Frankie Muniz) start playing the game but quickly learn its terrible secret; if you die in the game, you die for real! Yes, this movie really is that tacky. Also, there's something about an undead woman and a haunted orphanage. To be honest, I wasn't really listening. The acting in this film is truly atrocious. The death scenes come as some relief from the heavy-handed approach of leads and supporting cast alike. Two of the more embarrassing moments to watch are O'Neill remembering the fiery death of his mother (oh, so traumatic!) and Muniz's total geek-out ("I've read all the studies on perceptive reality!). Ultimately, this film seemed more like a mystery than a horror, as I found myself asking again and again: 'How did you get a budget for this?', 'When will this drivel end?', and 'Why, Frankie? Why? Why?' I will now spoil this film for you. Everyone who you expect to die, dies. Everyone who you expect to live, lives. Even the evil spirits of orphanage-running crazy women are no match for the monotonous predictability of "Stay Alive". The only twist in the plot is spelled out in plain English in the tag line on the DVD cover. Once you have come to grips with the near-plagiaristic concept of the 'deadly game', there is nothing to do but let this film roll on to its conclusion possibly the most boring final action sequence in modern horror. For the vast majority of the film I contemplated gouging out my own eyes. "Stay Alive" has no redeeming qualities. It is a dull plot combined with lackluster performances. The horror sequences are not so much 'scary' as 'coma-inducing'. If you are anything like me, you will find the only thing horrific about this film is the spirit-crushing boredom it inflicts upon you. I am sorry if this review seems quite short, but there are really only so many ways you can say a film is bad. Do not see this film. I am hereby renaming this movie "Stay Awake".
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 this anamorphic transfer is too dark for it's own good. Being a horror the filmmakers wanted to express a dark visual style but I found this transfer hard to watch. It was difficult making something out, although sharp I suspect this should have gone through a decent color grade before outputted onto this disc. I noticed some compression artefacts, edge-enhancement which is always unwelcome, moire effects were consistent especially through some of the many video game sequences. Overall I am rather unimpressed with this lackluster transfer.
Audio
A single English Dolby Digital 5.1 track is included for this film and unlike the transfer the sound is excellent. Dialogue is clear and distortion free, I found that it exhibited a great amount of depth, immersing the viewer into the film. Music makes effective use of the surround channels without being too overbearing. Overall this is a top grade sound track. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
Buena Vista Home Entertainment have included a small collection of extras that includes an audio commentary, an effects reel plus a handful of bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up we have a feature-length audio commentary by writer/director William Brent Bell and co-writer/producer Matthew Peterman. The track is mainly scene-specific and the participants discuss various topics from basing the film on a killer video game to the cast and shooting certain scenes. They talk about the visual cues and themes as well as video game influences and also provide background on the story. Overall I don't think these two realized how bad their movie actually is, and seem too preoccupied with how cool the video game is and the video game culture that this film is based in. To be honest their comments on thematic elements were totally lost on me, simply because I didn't care and even if you did care you'll likely get bored by this otherwise dull and uninteresting track. Following that is a "Visual Effects" reel which runs for 1 minute 32 seconds and is basically a series of video game clips, characters, weapons and scenes cut in a montage to some generic rock music, probably something from the film's soundtrack. It's a totally useless extra thrown in for some reason. bonus trailers are also included on this disc, all of which are start-up previews and can be skipped, these previews are for: - "Apocalypto" which runs for 2 minutes 34 seconds. - "Lost Season 2" which runs for 1 minute 33 seconds. - "Goal! The Dream Begins" which runs for 2 minutes 30 seconds. - "Stick It!" which runs for 2 minutes 30 seconds. - Anti-piracy spot which runs for 49 seconds.
Overall
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