Stay Alive

Stars: Jon Foster, Samaire Armstrong, Frankie Muniz, Jimmi Simpson, Sophia Bush, Wendell Pierce

Director: William Brent Bell

An absurd horror film in which young people playing a video game start dying in the same way as in the game.

'I can't believe this is happening.' moans Muniz (who should have a serious chat with his agent), as the star of the Cody Banks movies finds himself trapped in the kind of film where people say 'Hello?' when they walk into a spooky house.

The villainess of the piece is Countess Dracula - Elisabeth Bathory (Marina Kalinina) that is - whose spirit is reaching out from beyond the grave to lure unwary gamesters to gruesome deaths. Good grief.

David Quinlan

USA 2006. UK Distributor: UIP (Hollywood Pictures/Spyglass). Technicolor.
85 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 22 Jul 2006