Stay Alive

I’ll admit I rented Stay Alive because I think Sophia Bush is just delicious. Later, I bought the DVD used because I thought it was just too much fun. Yes, it’s silly, and the end is a bit lame, but dang it, Sophia Bush is in it.

Stay Alive is about a group of gamers who get a copy of an unreleased video game based very inaccurately on Elizabeth Bathory, The Blood Countess. Naturally, in true horror movie fashion, they play the game and when people die in the game, they die in real life. Then, the game starts taking on a life of its own. It’s a pretty simple plot, but fun, non the less.

There’s nothing terribly special about Stay Alive. It’s got some funny inside jokes that gamers should get. All of the characters are pretty standard horror fare, with the pretty blond (Samaire Armstrong), the Goth chick (Sophia Yum Yum Bush), the dorky gamer (Frankie Muniz), the hero with the troubled past (Jon Foster), and the smart alec (Jimmy Simpson). You even have the detective who doesn’t understand what’s really happening or believe the kids when they explain what’s going on.

I did like how the movie and the game would flip back and forth and some of the deaths were fun. I’ve liked Jimmy Simpson ever since I saw him in D.E.B.S., and he was just as fun here. The New Orleans setting was creepy and lovely at the same time. Everyone was okay with the amount of substance they were given, outside of the detectives and Frankie Muniz. He just annoys me.

Overall, I say Stay Alive is fun, if you like the regular, Scream type fare that seems to be churned out as horror these days. I bought it used because of my Sophia Bush crush, not because the movie really warranted a whole lot of in depth thought or brought on any real scares on a second viewing. But to be honest, that won’t stop me from watching it again, and again.

Rating: 3 Purrs (5 Purrs for Sophia Yum Yum Bush)