Game Not Ever Over

Stay Alive

Frankie Muniz, Jon Foster, and Samaire Armstrong star in
a film written by William Brent Bell and Matthew Peterman and
directed by Bell.

Reviewed by D.J. Palladino

Horror takes a lot of artistry, like telling an offensive joke.
If you build it beautifully, people will thank you for showing them
eviscerated teenagers, bloodied corporate executives, and even the
occasional baby doll with worms crawling out of its cute eyes.
What’s terrific about Stay Alive is that it shows you all
of the above with enough sneaky suspense, red herrings, and
murder-able gamers to say you saw the gore and you were pretty cool
with it.

Frankie Muniz (Malcolm in TV’s Malcolm in the Middle)
appears in this creepy film about a computer game that kills those
who “die” in its ghastly gaming levels. But real chemistry
emulsifies between Jon Foster (Eddie in The Door in the
Floor) and Samaire Armstrong (Anna Stern on The OC).
The kiss they share just after her near-gutting is almost funny but
somehow hot. And that’s what I’m talking about, horror. It’s bad
taste skating on the thin ice of beauty.

But Stay Alive, which features no scenes of John
Travolta using his walk, talks itself out of a strong catharsis.
Certain realistic trauma haunts our lead hunk, and instead of
providing him a chance to breathe after it, the camera takes off
and sets up a franchise for the future cloning of game and film.
The evil has been slain, but, alas, the marketing has just begun
for you, John Q.

I won’t bemoan the triumph of commerce over art. This is a
slasher flick, dude. I’m just sorry something scary had to succumb
to such a horrible formula.