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Review

The premise of this movie holds promise: a scary video game becomes all too real, but not in a Super Mario Bros. Movie kind of way. It’s not based on a game; it’s more about a game melding with real life and creating a whole lotta hoopla, like a slasher version of Existenz. It starts out with a bunch of gamers playing a hexed game — a game of death, torture and a big ‘ol nasty lady with a bun, hell-bent on revenge. But the promise fizzles because there are so many holes and undeveloped characters, and you’d rather watch a game of Tetris on the big screen for two hours.

The story centers on Hutch, played by the likeable Jon Foster, who works on video games for a living and battles with his circle of friends outside of work as well. One of his friends bites it while playing a game called Stay Alive that focuses on a really old New Orleans haunted all-girls school with a demented Head Mistress (aforementioned bun lady) who likes to torture the girls. Hutch and his friends end up playing the game and they mysteriously start dying as well, in similar ways that they died in the game. But the movie never really explains who made the game, how the hell it got to Hutch’s friend in the first place, or how it could even be possible that a computer-generated character could kill someone in real life. Granted, we believe it when ghosts and monsters to it, but video game characters? Just put a virus on the thing and pop in Medal of Honor and call it a day. And there really aren’t any rules to the game either. At first, you’re told that people cannot be killed if they’re not playing, but then towards the end that whole idea is thrown out the window.

Foster does a good job and even has an interestingly sad back-story with his parents, so, for a minute, you sort of feel bad for him, but then remember that he plays video games for a living, so the sympathy is short-lived. The rest of the cast, including Frankie Muniz and Adam Goldberg, do a good job, but it’s standard scary movie fare and despite occasional screams, it's hard to take running away from a diaphanous video game character seriously.

 -- Debra Gorgos