Stay Alive

There's a gothic backstory to all this, which makes no sense but looks pretty cool.

... while its narrative style -- elliptical, fragmented, even eccentric at times -- is ambitious and imaginative, it sometimes makes for a loss of clarity and momentum.

Teen fodder like this isn't known for sophistication or storytelling depth, but the filmmakers seem to take the film's video-game theme as permission to eschew even the horror genre's exceedingly lenient minimums for characterization.

Videogames are no longer brainless, so why are videogame movies so slow to evolve?

An anemic attempt to update the horror genre's imperiled-teens-meet-bloodletting-uber-fiend substratum.

It's unlikely that Stay Alive could ever have been a good movie in the traditional sense, but it might have been better if Bell and co-writer Matthew Peterman had done more to exploit their gaming premise.

One of those movies that thinks loud sounds and shaky cameras account for scares, and reminding of us of truly scary gaming experiences only amplifies its weaknesses.

If Stay Alive teaches us anything, it's that videogames and horror films do not mix...at least in the same movie.

...a little needless brutality would've almost certainly elevated the proceedings, albeit temporarily...

Yeah, the plot sounds like utter nonsense, but it's fun.

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- Aspirante a Terror em Silent Hill (jogo e filme) que, repleto de clichês e personagens caricaturais, revela-se apenas cansativo e previsível.