A group of young teens decided to play an online game containing a horror theme. But no one took into account the mysterious death of their old friend. Young people start playing a three-dimensional game on computer screens, but the game turns into reality when young people discover that the game is linked to the horrific reality. The game changes and the disaster begins when a person dies without knowing the reason every time they play that dreadful game. Young people will discover that those who die in the game die without knowing the cause.
Teen fodder like this isn't known for sophistication or storytelling depth, but the filmmakers seem to take the film's video-game theme as permission to eschew even the horror genre's exceedingly lenient minimums for characterization.
One of those movies that thinks loud sounds and shaky cameras account for scares, and reminding of us of truly scary gaming experiences only amplifies its weaknesses.
Time Out
June 24, 2006
... while its narrative style -- elliptical, fragmented, even eccentric at times -- is ambitious and imaginative, it sometimes makes for a loss of clarity and momentum.
It's unlikely that Stay Alive could ever have been a good movie in the traditional sense, but it might have been better if Bell and co-writer Matthew Peterman had done more to exploit their gaming premise.
