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Stay Alive Review

Movies.com Critics

1.5

Dave White Profile

By the end you wish they were all dead. Read full review

Other Critics provided by Metacritic.com

Critics scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 2.0
    24

    out of 100

    Metascore®
    Generally unfavorable reviews
    based on a weighted average of all
    critic review scores.

  • 16

    out of 100

    Entertainment Weekly

    Videogames are no longer brainless, so why are videogame movies so slow to evolve?

    Read Full Review

  • 40

    out of 100

    Los Angeles Times John Anderson

    Stay Alive spends a lot of time inside the video game system, and what will terrify the audience very early on is the realization that there's better acting in the video game than on the big screen.

    Read Full Review

  • 40

    out of 100

    The New York Times

    The star of Stay Alive is a cutting-edge video game, but the film still has hackneyed horror at its heart. And worse, it's not even the stylishly, wittily executed hackneyed horror of the "Scream" movies.

    Read Full Review

  • 50

    out of 100

    Variety

    Despite some hackneyed qualities, helmer William Brent Bell's good-looking if undistinguished cast and the seemingly fresh twist on an old tale should lure the usual fans of mayhem, murder and the medieval.

    Read Full Review

  • 50

    out of 100

    The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

    A passable horror-thriller for the young crowd, assuming a movie can lure them away from PlayStations.

    Read Full Review

  • See all Stay Alive reviews at Metacritic.com

For Families provided by Common Sense Media

Not for kids 16 and under

Ridiculous slasher flick. Teens, go elsewhere.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that film includes frequent references to killing and images of murder. Though most of the violent acts (stabbing, shooting, neck-slicing) are intimated rather than graphic, the bloody effects are very visible. The video game at the film's center is based on a real-life legend (a 17th-century Hungarian Countess who supposedly killed hundreds of children), and her young, white-gowned victim-ghosts appear as bloody, ravaged and broken (digitized) forms. After first murders (including a hanging), characters attend a funeral. One character lies about her family background (pretending to be of a higher social class). One early sex scene features two naked young people, one in a pig mask; the primary couple kisses near the end (typically, just when you think they should be running away!). Two characters smoke cigarettes; one smokes marijuana via a bong.

  • Families can talk about the relationships between friends and, in one case, sister and brother. How do these bonds lead them to investigate the murders and then get in trouble? How can video games or other media affect your sense of reality and responsibility, or your social life?

The good stuff
  • message true0

    Messages: Gamers are so devoted to their avocation that they don't attend to legal or other niceties; cops are arrogant and ineffectual; the monstrous Countess, of course, only means to grind them all down.

What to watch for
  • violence false5

    Violence: Frequent jump scenes and scary music (not so effective, but the intent is clear); film opens on bloody eye; reference to a childhood trauma in which a father burned his wife to death and left his son to die; video game violence is bloody and brutal (stabbing, dismembering, hanging, shooting, crossbowing); real-life characters are similarly abused, and also run down by a horse-drawn carriage, splatted in a car (seen from a distance, blood on windows), nailed in the head, hung upside down, set on fire.

  • sex false3

    Sex: Early sex scene shows two young people, from the back, one wearing a pig mask; reference to " PDA sex thing" player gets excited and says, " can feel it in my pants."

  • language false3

    Language: Some profanity, including s-word, "," hell," "," "," " Jesus," and some sexual innuendo.

  • consumerism false0

    Consumerism: Alienware PCs, Steamboy movie poster, Fresca soda, Pontiac GTO.

  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3

    Drinking, drugs and smoking: Characters smoke cigarettes; one character appears passed out, then reveals the reason: a huge bong.

Fan Reviews provided by

4

Stay Alive Movie Review by Asianfreak
70 out of 100 If you really think about it, it's a fairly-good horror film with fantastic performances from the cast.

4

by lilkeith77

4

Stay Alive Movie Review by Spencer27057
70 out of 100 Not a great movie, not a thrilling movie but it's certainly an entertainer.

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