Stay Alive

Come come. I kinda ... well.... how you say it.. malas? To put up a new post. Not so much because I detest typing. Hey, that what I do every day on my work. Type type type. Just that I sooo like love looking at Kirsten Bell pic at the top of my blog. Sigh. ( I am still on Veronica Mars fever but can't watch the later episodes due to hectic schedule in my life and other impending series needed to watch. Oh and the other little thing I still have not finish downloading) Probably I will put another fan girl button down my blog *grin foolishly*.

Anyway. A couple of weeks back, deciding to give my brother a treat before he went to the grind of study life (study life? grind? yeah,right) I 'belanja' him to watch Stay Alive. If those who are observant and have memory that hard to erase, I put that up as the thing I wanna watch in my blog.

I just want to watch it since it have Samaire Armstrong, Milo Ventigmilia and Frankie Muniz in it. Oh, not to mention Sophia Bush. But I don't really care much about her since I don't watch One Tree Hill. Oh and also the ever burning desire to see on they bring the Blood Countess on the Video game/movie. I am actually more interested in the Blood Countess.

The Summary
The story started with Loomis (Milo Ventigmilia) , playing a new video game. This game is about trying to get past or destroy the evil which is Elizabeth Bathory or the Blood Countess. He made a wrong move in the game, which causes his character to then be killed by being hung from the chandelier. A bit freaked out , he call in his BFF and kinda like a forster brother (the details are a bit fuzzy), Hutch (Jon Forster) come over playing this new game. Loomis was found later killed at his own house, hanging from the ceiling.

A grief-stricken Hutch, found the game and together with his game crazy friends, opt to play this new game in tribute to Loomis. (Weird way to grieve) . Then one by one, his friends died like their character in the game.

My thoughts?
Well.. if one want to prove the illogical of it, this is after all a horror movie where some character from the past come alive. They are many hole in this little movie it. How does a character manage to stay alive and after apparently died? Who bring this game to life, since surely Elizabeth Bathory who live at the age of 15th century would not have programming prowess? What does the little room in the house mean? Why if the Countess recoiled from wild roses, the wild roses are found in abundance around her house? And what is that annoying vibrating sound before they are killed? At the end of the movie, you are left with, huh?

However the video game characters and its graphic are nicely done. And the film have its moment. When Abigail (Samaire Armstrong) and Hutch kiss just after Hutch rescue her, bring the whole cinema cracking up. I guess romantic tender moment, just don't find the correct note here. But the actors and actresses are not that bad. Frankie Muniz is delightful as always. Samaire Armstrong is as sweet as she was in O.C. Sophia Bush is different from the usual sweetiness, which probably why you can see she act her character with relish. Jon Forster looks kinda out of it at first, but got into his character ok enough in the end. The ol mansion that they show look kinda like the mansion in the Skeleton Key. However the graveyard shown at the back of the mansion, was very creepy. So kudos to that graveyard alone :P

As for the Elizabeth Bathory legend. Well, those who is as much as a history buff as me and have a penchant for bloody history, all know that the Elizabeth Bathory had lived and was feared. She was as said in the movie. Kidnapping young girls for torture, riding in her black carriage at night looking for victims, hanging victim upside down and drained them of their blood. All true. However she did not lived in Pennsylvania , but rather Hungary. Probably the movie will cost too much if they went to Hungary? She come from a royal bloodline , thus why her act of terrors went on so long before she was persecuted. Read more about Elizabeth Bathory here, if you like.

Worth your rm10? For a horror movie, this did ok. Probably worth a DVD bought from your local black market.LOL (kidding, do support film industry) Better than Fragile though I have to say Fragile have the better plot. (But..blergh.. I still cannot get that horrible image of ol saggy flesh out of my mind..) The movie have all the bump in the night and flickering light and darkness of any horror movie. So horror movie element? Check . There is much fault in the movie if you want to openly ridicule it (which I did, I know I contradict myself). However the acting from the cast, make it a bit bearable. Just watch it as it are : A mindless horror movie.