Stay Alive

This one should be renamed Stay Awake! We see a group of teens come to terms with the loss of their friend who dies mysteriously whilst playing a new video game called Stay Alive. The game is based on a true story of a seventeenth century noblewoman called the Blood Countess - a female sadist in a long red gown who tortured her victims with all sorts of instruments (no it's not Celine Dion playing the piano!). One such instrument is a huge pair of scissors that you won't find in Grandma's needlework box that's for sure as they make a pair of garden shears look like nail clippers…!

Now, when this group of brain surgeons realise that their friend died in exactly the same way as he did when he was killed off in the video game you'd figure they'd be a tad apprehensive of playing it themselves… wrong! These kids have a death wish as one-by-one they play the game and meet some nasty ends… They are the lucky ones…! Sadly the rest of us have to play on and witness the Blood Countess hunt her victims down in a horse and carriage which is ironic really as you could drive one right through this script! Eventually, of course, the hero and heroine, aided and abetted by the token geek, take on the mighty countess and hit her where it hurts which is no mean feat as Ms Shackles their Tackle 1759 has a torture chamber that makes the London Dungeon look like Barbie's bedroom! The only weapon they have at their disposal to save a life in the game, and avoid being rubbed, is a red rose which they must drop in their immediate vicinity… enter Interflora as we see more roses being thrown than at all of Elizabeth Taylor's weddings put together…

We end with a copy of the game finding its way into some poor unsuspecting suckers hands… yawn. In a word – Torturous.