I was really looking forward to seeing this movie. As a gamer, a HUGE fan of survival horror games (Silent Hill especially), and someone who absolutely loves supernatural horror, I thought this movie had the potential to be like a dream, or nightmare, come true. Unfortunately, the writers of the movie must not really be into gaming, and even that would be okay if the movie creators actually did a little research. Stay Alive is a beta version of a computer game, Frankie Muniz uses an alienware laptop, but it's played with playstation controllers (I think-at least its a PS controller on the movie cover). The tester plays the game with a couple of friends, and if you die in the game, you die for real. (I even found the tag line of the movie annoying.."you die in the game, you die for real" sounds too much like a nightmare on elm st's +you die in your dreams, you die for real.")I was disappointed in this movie in the first ten minutes. The main character, Hutch, works as some kind of clerk in an office. His boss calls him in to ask advice on the game he's playing, Silent Hill 4. He needs to know how to beat the last boss. Hutch tells him to "dop the hyperblaster-it has unlimited ammo but drop it anyway-then go down the stairs to the boss, and she'll just die. First of all, no last boss just dies when you do nothing. Second of all, there is no hyperblaster in SH4. Finally, the last boss in SH4 is a man, not a woman. I realize I may sound like a nerd, but I honestly think if you're going to make a movie about a survival horror game and you want to reference a game, at the very least wikipedia it first.So anyway Hutch ends up with Stay Alive, and he gets together with some gamer friends and one girl who has never played anything before, and they all play. These are supposed to be serious gamers. So at one point Hutch's character is standing in a room with a fireplace and a closet, and there's a GLOWING LIGHT coming out of the closet and the door is ajar. Pretty obvious you'd think.. but he doesn't see it. The girl who had never played a game before goes "wait! wait! the wardrobe!' to which Hutch responds "NICE eye!!!!" The friends then praise her for noticing the completely obvious hidden room. If he's a serious gamer and he didn't know to check the door with the glowing light coming out of it..he should find a new hobby.Besides silly things like that though, the movie isn't all bad. I wouldn't call it scary, but it was a cool idea. The story wasn't explained as well as I would have liked, and there were some things left unanswered (I noticed people saying they never said who made the game, but they did) for example, the cops were looking to arrest Hutch bc he knew all the murder victims. When the cops show up at the house his friends are hanging out in, they run (Nevermind that Hutch had an alibi for all the murders, apparently knowing people is all it takes to be thrown in jail.) and at the end of the movie, I guess the cops just give up? There were a few loose ends that were kind of annoying. Altogether though it's worth a watch. The idea was solid, the game scenes weren't bad, and if this actually comes out as a game, I would definitely play it. As a gamer it offended me a little, but as a horror movie fan I liked it, because it was a unique idea and hasn't been done to death. Overall I'm glad I watched it, but I don't think I would sit through it again.

"October!... October, where are you?!" - shouts one of the daft teens. You really need to be a rather confused film-script scribbler in order to name a female "October" and then actually have someone shout her name several times, over and over. This is the kind of Z-grade quality we're dealing with here.Whenever you think you'd just seen a horror flick with characters so idiotic and annoying they can't possibly get any worse, they come and surprise you by lowering the standards even further. Yes, there is the obligatory comic-relief moron (with a lack of manners so exaggerated that he instantly gains zero credibility as an actual living, physical, human individual) who gets killed early on (though not early enough by far), only this time the guy is so excruciatingly unfunny that you can only assume that the writer is someone's son, some useless nepotistic offspring without a smidgen of writing ability.In fact, the script is so moronic that we have two situations in which characters contradict themselves without any explanation being given. In one scene, the main character brings the idea to the others that the computer game might be responsible for the killings, and then – just a minute later – when one of the others agrees with him, he suddenly behaves like the skeptic and tells him not to be ridiculous! Amazing stuff. And the same thing happens AGAIN, a little later, only this time it's the nerd who contradicts himself.SA has no tension, no sense of dread. It is a forgettably bland horror film with lazy editing, average actors (I'm being generous here), and characters so cardboard-like they should be sent to a post office where they can be neatly folded into packages.A truly moronic scene is when just minutes after the brunette was brutally murdered, the blond girl has nothing better to do than go into a totally pointless and schmaltzy bit about how she has no home and lives in the van they're driving. South American mushrooms should not be touched ever, especially during the writing process. Avoid this dull turkey.

A group of youngsters playing a video game start being killed in the same way they die in the game. It is a race against time to find out how to save themselves.This movie is dressed up as a horror film in the Final Destination tradition, but it isn't. This is mainly because the deaths are pretty innocuous: yes, there is some blood, but nothing is especially graphic. Also, there is a reliance on "made you jump" noise rather than any actual horror.I didn't really mind this - the story powered along nicely, kept me interested, and the characters were fairly well drawn and sympathetic.A decent "entry level" horror-styled movie.

The premise for this movie really isn't too different from other horror movies. Something normal that you wouldn't think could kill you...can. The same basics have been used with movies, the internet, phones, etc, and well now with video games. So then why did I give this movie the rating I did? Well maybe I just really like B horror movies, or being different and liking something that's normally hated. Either way I actually thought this movie was pretty good.There was a time that I liked playing a lot of video games, so maybe this movie kind of brings that side back to me. Granted I think the visuals they used for the game and just really the game they made up in general are better then most of this movie. It seemed to me that they really worked harder on making the game look cool than making the movie better then it was.It's time to be nice though. It did what it was suppose to. It kept me entertained and didn't leave me in a bad or confused mood at the end. Sure the acting really wasn't all that great but I did enjoy the death scenes for the most part. The plot while kind of old I'll admit was pretty interesting.The only thing I really don't get is why use Elizabeth Bathory? They could have just as easily put a random made up ghost in that place. Why put someone from history that really didn't fit too well in that role? Well at least I can say they did pick a creepy person. Although Elizabeth Bathory in life was more scary than this movie will every be and for that matter probably scarier than any horror movie I've ever seen. That's just my opinion on it.Getting back on track. I don't see how this movie is God awful, not saying it's great by any means. Just saying it might be worth a quick watch if you're a horror fan. I enjoyed it for the most part and I'm sure I can't be the only one.