Stay Alive


3/4

Starring: Jon Foster, Samaire Armstrong, Frankie Muniz, Jimmi Simpson, Sophia Bush

The version of the film being reviewed is the Unrated one.  For the record, the theatrical version is rated PG-13 for Horror Violence, Disturbing Images, Language, Brief Sexual and Drug Content

I was not expecting to like this movie as much as I did.  True, the film is a rip-off of “FeardotCom” (which itself was a rip-off of “The Ring”), but there’s a lot of good ideas going on here, and there is actually a legitimate amount of tension in the proceedings.  It’s not perfect (there are some moments where it plays dumb, breaks its own rules, and the final scene doesn’t work), but I still liked it.

Hutch (Foster) is not happy.  His best friends, Loomis (Milo Ventimiglia), Rex (Billy Slaughter) and Sarah (Nicole Opperman) were just brutally murdered.  After his funeral, Hutch and a few friends get together and play the beta version of a game that Loomis was playing when he died.  What they don’t know is that when they die in that game, they die in real life.

The film does not get off to a strong start.  It opens in a conventional way, and there’s not much to differentiate it from your average horror flick (I did like the opening scene of a computer game, however).  When the characters start figuring out that the game is related to the deaths of their friends, things start getting really interesting, and the filmmakers take full advantage of the opportunity.  The rules for how the game can and cannot work are unique to say the least, and we figure them out as the characters do.

The acting is effective.  Jon Foster, the younger brother of the great character actor Ben Foster, is effective in a low-key portrayal as Hutch.  It’s not flashy, but it works.  Samaire Armstrong is also good as the flaky Abigail, as is Sophia Bush who plays the goth October.  The best performances go to Jimmi Simpson, who is very convincing as the obnoxious gamer Finn, and Frankie Muniz as the geeky Swink.

The visuals were really cool, and I especially liked how the computer game sequences were integrated in the computer.  It gives the filmmakers new ground to play in much like the “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies did for Wes Craven.  There’s a good sense of atmosphere and the characters are worth caring about.

The film is not flawless.  For one thing, it ignores the most obvious rule about multiplayer gaming, and it sometimes breaks its own rules.  The final scene is a traditional twist ending, but it doesn’t fit with this movie.  It’s not scary or clever because, according to the movie’s rules, it can’t feasibly happen.

I saw the director’s cut, and apparently the studio forced the director to cut the film to earn a PG-13 rating.  The film was torn apart by critics and it’s not hard to see why.  There’s so much gore that’s a part of the story that to cut it out would render the film incomprehensible and emasculated.  This is one movie that needs its R rating.

Horror fans would do well to check this one out.

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