Stay Alive (PG-13)

Ridiculous slasher flick. Teens, go elsewhere.

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About Our Ratings
Common Sense rates it
1
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Movie details
  • Studio: Touchstone Pictures, Touchstone Pictures
  • Directed By: William Bell
  • Cast: Frankie Muniz, Samaire Armstrong
  • Running Time: 85 minutes
  • Release Date: 03/24/2006
  • Video/DVD Release Date: 09/19/2006
  • Genre: Horror
  • MPAA Rating: PG-13
  • MPAA Explanation: violence, disturbing images, language, and brief sexual and drug content.

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?

Message

Social Behavior:

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.

Consumerism:

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

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

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

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

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

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

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Cynthia Fuchs

When a nerdishly enthusiastic player (Milo Ventimiglia) tries the unreleased video game "Stay Alive," he and two friends end up viciously murdered, a new crew gets hold of the game, including earnest Hutch (Jon Foster), dorky Phineus (Jimmi Simpson) and tech-head Swink (Frankie Muniz). The requisite girls are Phin's gothy sister October (Sophia Bush) and last minute tagalong Abigail (Samaire Armstrong). When Phin insists that they should all game in honor of their fallen gamer friend, the game provides them with muscular avatars, guns and crossbows, then leads them to a terrible place featuring a dungeon, torture, and mayhem, where they start dying in real life the ways they die in the game.

Is it any good?

1

Ridiculous and then some, STAY ALIVE offers the usual slasher movie set-up: young people making one wrong decision after another. Here they're up against a video game character, the "Blood Countess" (Maria Kalinina), complete with red gown and pasty face. She's based on a real life Hungarian serial killer, transferred to New Orleans (where some of the film was shot, just before Hurricane Katrina hit last year), and is accompanied by ghosts of her victims, little girls in white dresses and J-horror-styled stringy hair.

The painfully necessary romance between Hutch and Abigail slows down the action somewhat, especially as she must send him forth to fight the Countess on his own, while she stays behind in a barred room and counts off rose petals to the hackneyed tune of "He loves me, he loves me not." This just before Swink comes back from the apparent dead, to restore the endangered pretty couple. Why, we'll never know.

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Parents and kids say

All Reviews

There are 16 reviews.

Age 13+
3


Posted on 06/19/08 by metoman Adult contributor

Not A Movie You Want Your Child to see.

A pretty nice movie but not a movie you want your child to see. If you do want to show your 13 or 14 year old child show them the theatrical version of the movie no the directors cut. The directors cut is extremely gory, has very strong language ( F word repeated many times over 30), and a nude scene were it show a womens behind, and a quick glimpse of her breasts. Not a teen movie.
5


Posted on 08/06/07 by movies make me :) Kid contributor, age 9

scary but awsome

it was a good teen scream. a kid would not sleep at night. good for 15+
5


Posted on 02/10/07 by dklink Kid contributor, age 12

if u r looking 4 a bloody movie, watch STAY ALIVE: direcrors Cut.

i watched the unrated version. it was VERY bloody... a character gets hanged in the game, then in real life; another person is stabbed in game, then real life; a character gets run over by a horse drawn carriage; someone's head explodes; someone's neck is slashed; somebody is killed by a wierd blade/scissors type thing; and the antagonist has nails go through her heart, neck, and head and then is set on fire. this movie contains TONS of swearing in cluding at least 8-10 f-words, several "S#!+" s and many other words. there is one sex scene but nothing is shown. and 1 character says things while playing the game like "i can feel it in my pants". i however did like the movie, but most parents would find it extremely violent and gross.
5


Posted on 01/24/07 by lafs1684 Kid contributor, age 15

It was good

I have the PG-13 version on DVD because I hadn't seen it in the movies and i bought it the first day it came out, so i didnt know if the directors cut had the orginal version so i just got the Pg-13 one and now i regret it. I really want the unrated because the pg-13 version is pretty tame. The only violence and gore for it is mostly in the game and the death scenes they flash away
5


Posted on 11/22/06 by hopelessprisoner Kid contributor, age 11

an awesome movie.......

Stay Alive is an awesome movie-in my and my friends oppinion anyway. if u r thinkin of watchin the Directors Cut version of this moviehere r some things to consider.Sure its and awesome movie but it uses the swears f--k, b--ch, ba---rd, a--, motherf---er, D**n, d-ck and s--t,alot of times. there is also one scene around the beginning where there r 2 people havein sex, and u can c the dude's butt.(lol).later u can also briefly c boobs. So personally, i think it should b 'R'.theres my opinion, and it is A MUST C MOVIE!(sorry for bad spelling and grammer im used 2 MSN, oops, i did it again lol.)
Age 17+
2


Posted on 11/10/06 by tommysportsgirl Adult contributor

not horrible, not great

It's an average horror movie. The language is much too bad for children to watch it, however. As for scary images, it's simply not that scary. I jumped maybe once the entire time.
3


Posted on 09/24/06 by moviemogul 2.0; also fomerly moviemogul Kid contributor, age 15

5


Posted on 09/21/06 by LIL_MAYNE_DA_SICKEST Kid contributor, age 9

4


Posted on 09/19/06 by MaGGoT4LIFE Kid contributor, age 15

...

Honestly..I Thought It Could Have Been Better...I Got Kinda Bored... it Could Have Been more...Gorey... but yeah...thats just me... but still...it was pretty good...
1

Posted on 04/22/06 by Anonymous Kid contributor, age 13

Not Scary at All

Pathetically stupid, with a somewhat unique plot, and unscary jump scenes, its easier to consider a comedy than a horror film. Worth it on a boring night, but dont expect anything great.

See all 16 reviews >

Adult Reviews

There are 4 reviews.

Age 13+
3


Posted on 06/19/08 by metoman Adult contributor

Not A Movie You Want Your Child to see.

A pretty nice movie but not a movie you want your child to see. If you do want to show your 13 or 14 year old child show them the theatrical version of the movie no the directors cut. The directors cut is extremely gory, has very strong language ( F word repeated many times over 30), and a nude scene were it show a womens behind, and a quick glimpse of her breasts. Not a teen movie.
Age 17+
2


Posted on 11/10/06 by tommysportsgirl Adult contributor

not horrible, not great

It's an average horror movie. The language is much too bad for children to watch it, however. As for scary images, it's simply not that scary. I jumped maybe once the entire time.
Age 13+
3


Posted on 04/19/06 by TrulyCapricious Adult contributor

Cute Horror Flick

To answer the above review, it got a PG 13 because there was very little actual violence in the movie and even the virtual violence was pretty tame. This is significantly less gruesome than most action-adventure movies and *way* less gory than most of the video games it emulated. There were depictions of violent death but for the most part the camera just flashed to and away from it, preventing viewers from seeing anything but a bunch of red. When my friends and I saw it, the theater was packed with kids in the 10-15 range and they spent most of the movie screaming and laughing and generally seeming to have fun. The premise is clever and it's fairly well executed. With things like Hostel and Saw II and The Hills Have Eyes out on the market, this is pretty much the only option for kids who want to see a horror flick. Luckily for them, it's not half bad.
Age 17+
0


Posted on 04/01/06 by firesmithb Adult contributor

How did this slasher get a PG13 rating??!!

I read everything on the website about this movie. I haven't even seen it but I want to know how it could possibly have received a PG-13 rating??!!

Kids Reviews

There are 12 reviews.

5


Posted on 08/06/07 by movies make me :) Kid contributor, age 9

scary but awsome

it was a good teen scream. a kid would not sleep at night. good for 15+
5


Posted on 02/10/07 by dklink Kid contributor, age 12

if u r looking 4 a bloody movie, watch STAY ALIVE: direcrors Cut.

i watched the unrated version. it was VERY bloody... a character gets hanged in the game, then in real life; another person is stabbed in game, then real life; a character gets run over by a horse drawn carriage; someone's head explodes; someone's neck is slashed; somebody is killed by a wierd blade/scissors type thing; and the antagonist has nails go through her heart, neck, and head and then is set on fire. this movie contains TONS of swearing in cluding at least 8-10 f-words, several "S#!+" s and many other words. there is one sex scene but nothing is shown. and 1 character says things while playing the game like "i can feel it in my pants". i however did like the movie, but most parents would find it extremely violent and gross.
5


Posted on 01/24/07 by lafs1684 Kid contributor, age 15

It was good

I have the PG-13 version on DVD because I hadn't seen it in the movies and i bought it the first day it came out, so i didnt know if the directors cut had the orginal version so i just got the Pg-13 one and now i regret it. I really want the unrated because the pg-13 version is pretty tame. The only violence and gore for it is mostly in the game and the death scenes they flash away
5


Posted on 11/22/06 by hopelessprisoner Kid contributor, age 11

an awesome movie.......

Stay Alive is an awesome movie-in my and my friends oppinion anyway. if u r thinkin of watchin the Directors Cut version of this moviehere r some things to consider.Sure its and awesome movie but it uses the swears f--k, b--ch, ba---rd, a--, motherf---er, D**n, d-ck and s--t,alot of times. there is also one scene around the beginning where there r 2 people havein sex, and u can c the dude's butt.(lol).later u can also briefly c boobs. So personally, i think it should b 'R'.theres my opinion, and it is A MUST C MOVIE!(sorry for bad spelling and grammer im used 2 MSN, oops, i did it again lol.)
3


Posted on 09/24/06 by moviemogul 2.0; also fomerly moviemogul Kid contributor, age 15

5


Posted on 09/21/06 by LIL_MAYNE_DA_SICKEST Kid contributor, age 9

4


Posted on 09/19/06 by MaGGoT4LIFE Kid contributor, age 15

...

Honestly..I Thought It Could Have Been Better...I Got Kinda Bored... it Could Have Been more...Gorey... but yeah...thats just me... but still...it was pretty good...
1

Posted on 04/22/06 by Anonymous Kid contributor, age 13

Not Scary at All

Pathetically stupid, with a somewhat unique plot, and unscary jump scenes, its easier to consider a comedy than a horror film. Worth it on a boring night, but dont expect anything great.
5


Posted on 04/14/06 by greendaylover1994 Kid contributor, age 11

great horror flick

this is one of the best horror movies ive ever seen csm should have given this a pause
4


Posted on 04/07/06 by undiscovered_singer Kid contributor, age 13

Horror's Next Big Hit

I loved this movie! I am a big horror fan myself, and have seen almost every recent one, but this is best by far! If you like super-thrilling movies with that horror-gory touch (only a bit!), then SEE THIS MOVIE NOW!
See all 12 kids reviews >
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132 votes