For that matter, given all the fearsome buildup, the grisly punchlines feel muted, no doubt in the service of attaining a PG-13 rating. Indeed, while much is made of the game’s connection to Bathory’s true story, as related by Goth chick October (Sophia Bush), any true scholar of the Blood Countess will know that she did all her dirty work in Europe, not the Big Easy. Needless to say, what they wind up playing is Loomis’ copy of Stay Alive, in which participants explore and battle their way through the Southern plantation of notorious real-life Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who murdered hundreds of girls and bathed in their blood in an attempt to stay youthful and beautiful.Ĭue the shedding of more young blood, though the Countess never does get around to bathing in it. His computer-happy pals, led by Hutch MacNeil (Jon Foster), decide to pay tribute to their fallen friend by indulging in some multiplayer action, along with Hutch’s closet-gamer boss (Adam Goldberg, well-cast in a funny extended cameo). The first victim is Loomis, played by Cursed’s Milo Ventimiglia in the Drew Barrymore role, who gets his shortly after beta-testing the Stay Alive game in his New Orleans home (the city’s antediluvian atmosphere provides effective counterpoint to the techno-spawned mayhem). The film opens promisingly, setting up the premise already established in the ads: If your Stay Alive cyber-alter ego suffers a horrible fate, you die in real life, in the same manner. I haven’t yet seen the cinematic incarnation of Silent Hill and thus don’t know how Stay Alive compares (though based on the Silent trailer that played before Alive when I caught it, the films have at least one scene in common), but the new movie is comparable to the first Evil feature in that it captures some of the jumpy allure of a horror game, but doesn’t have a compelling or consistent enough story to succeed as a feature-film experience. The fictitious video game that gives Stay Alive its title looks like it would be a fun one to play, combining the creepy atmosphere of Silent Hill with the blow-away-ghouls action of Resident Evil. Editor's Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on March 24, 2016, and we're proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
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