فيلم Stay Alive
Jemima Torguson
Stay Alive is a 2006 American horror film directed by William Brent Bell, who co-wrote it with Matthew Peterman. The film was produced by Joseph McGinty Nichol, and released on March 24, 2006, in the United States.It was the first film released by Hollywood Pictures after five years of inactivity.Stay Alive has gained a cult following despite initial critical panning.
The game is set in a derelict mansion on Gerouge Plantation, but it only starts when the six players recite "The Prayer of Elizabeth," a request for "all who resist" to perish so that their blood can keep the Countess Elizabeth Bathory young. The players fight through a cemetery of evil ghost children, heading toward a mausoleum and tower. The game directs Miller to pick up a rose. October, a reader of occult literature, explains that undead spirits cannot move across wild roses. Separated from the others, Miller throws the rose to dispel the spirits of undead girls. Since he is out of roses, a woman in a red dress, the Countess, kills Miller's character. Minutes later, the Countess appears in Miller's office and kills him by stabbing him with conjoined scissor blades like the ones in the game.
Two detectives, Thibodeaux and King, question Hutch about the homicides. Hutch realizes that Loomis and Miller played Stay Alive right before they died, and that they died the same way as their game characters did. October researches Bathory and learns she would drain young women of blood, bathing in it to maintain her youth. Her weakness was mirrors because she could not stand to see herself growing old. Phineus decides to play alone, and despite quitting the game before his character can die, he is killed in real life when a horse-drawn carriage runs him over. The survivors agree to stop playing Stay Alive. However, Detective King ignores Swink's warning and plays until his character dies. King is then killed in his car.
Hutch and Abigail search Loomis' house and learn of the game developer's location: the real Gerouge Plantation. October has discovered that the real Countess Bathory was locked in the tower of her estate as punishment for her gruesome acts and vowed to return one day for revenge, which she is now able to do, as The Prayer of Elizabeth has resurrected her. The Countess can only be killed by driving three nails into her body to trap her soul. October sees the Countess in real life and tries to kill her but realizes she is a ghost. She has her throat slit by the Countess. The three survivors realize that once the game has begun, it can play by itself. Swink stays in a van and plays the game on his laptop to distract Bathory while Hutch and Abigail search Gerouge Plantation.
The Countess begins cheating, arriving in her carriage to kill Swink in real life, even though his character is alive. Swink runs, but he falls into a bush of roses. Hutch and Abigail return to the van to find Swink's character dead. They take the laptop and some wild roses, which they drop to deter undead children as they move toward the tower. They become separated, and Hutch performs the ritual on Bathory's body alone. Bathory's phantom attacks Abigail. At the top of the tower, Hutch finds the preserved body of Elizabeth Bathory and hammers three nails into it, after which the spirit disappears. Bathory's body reanimates; recalling that the Countess hates mirrors, Hutch uses the reflective laptop to repel her before setting the room ablaze. Swink, still alive due to the rose bush, bursts in with Abigail and rescues Hutch. As Bathory's body burns, the three leave the tower.
Meanwhile, the gaming store is now selling copies of Stay Alive. Intrigued, a worker puts a copy in a PlayStation 2. As the game's intro begins, the group reciting Elizabeth Bathory's prayer is heard as the game zooms to Bathory, staring out her window.
Stay Alive received negative critical reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 24 out of 100 based on 17 reviews.[3] Rotten Tomatoes holds this film with a 10% rating based on 59 reviews, with an average rating of 3.20/10. The site's critics consensus states: "A by-the-numbers teen horror flick, Stay Alive fails to exploit its premise for any real scares."[4]
Writing for Newsday, John Anderson commented that "'Stay Alive' spends a lot of time inside the video game system, and what will terrify the audience very early on is the realization that there's better acting in the video game than on the big screen."[5] Meanwhile, writing for Variety, Anderson concluded: "Seldom is there anything close to real passion or panic on display here from cast members."[6]
Stay Close is a limited mini-series released on Netflix and produced by the Red Production Company. It is an eight-episode British mystery drama series released on 31st December 2021. Directed by Daniel O'Hara, Stay Close is based on the 2012 murder mystery thriller by notable author Harlan Coben.
Spoilers ahead! This series is available globally on Netflix and follows the life of Megan Pierce-Shaw (Cush Jumbo), who has left her earlier home, changed her identity, and built a new persona for herself. Her reasons for doing this are that she wanted to start a new life away from the horrors of her past, which involved murder, a stalker, disappearances, and her identity as a stripper in an adult entertainment club. Earlier, she was known as Cassie. She reinvents herself with a new name, gets involved with a lovely man (with whom she has three beautiful children), and is about to get married when she gets a visit from someone from her past.
Lorraine Griggs (Sarah Parish) (an old acquaintance from the strip club) enters her life again and disrupts everything when she tells Megan her old stalker is still alive and is actively searching for Cassie again. He still hasn't let go of her. Simultaneously, precisely 16 years to the last time a young man went missing, another man named Carlton Flynn (Connor Calland) is also missing. Police get involved, Megan's past catches up to her, and her old flame, photojournalist Ray Levine (Richard Armitage), notices the police investigating the disappearance.
This twisted tale of intrigue includes characters Ken (Hyoie O'Grady) and Barbie (Poppy Gilbert). They have a sunny disposition but are ruthless killers with plenty of darkness lurking just beneath the surface.
The story continues with Megan discovering plenty of secrets, tying loose ends from her past, confronting old lovers, trying to save her relationship with her fianc Dave Shaw (Daniel Francis), and protecting her children.
While the TV series is set in the fictional suburb of Livingstone, the shooting locations are all in England. The cities and areas in Manchester, Blackpool, Prescot, Lancashire, Runcorn's Silver Jubilee Bridge, St. Helens, Morecambe, and Formby were used. The backdrops of these locations, shooting styles, props and setups were set in record time since the majority of the film shooting took place during the Covid-19 lockdown. However, considering all the social distancing challenges, the shooting that should have gotten over in a few months took nearly 6 to 8 months.
For most of the shoots, Blackpool seemed like the perfect location for what is supposed to be Atlantic City, New Jersey (as per the book), and the crew had to make very few changes to fit the scene descriptions. Similarly, Northern Manchester was used for filming most indoor and city center shooting locations.
Teaser: While the team was scouting for Stay Close locations, they chose the popular tourist attraction of the massive head sculpture. This sculpture is authentic and is the 'Dream' statue by artist Jaume Plensa at St. Helens. While no Stay Close action scenes are shot there, the sculpture is a work of art that tourists should surely visit. You can see it from junction 7 by the M62 between Liverpool and Manchester.
The hen party is one of the few funny scenes in Stay Close with Megan (Cush Jumbo) and her girlfriends having a fabulous time at a bar where they call a male model, and they all sit to paint him while he poses in his underwear. Before the model enters, Megan and her friends take selfies in caps that say 'Megan
This fun scene is shot at the famous Refuge Bar in Manchester, UK. It is a favorite of most locals and has the feel of an elegant, roomy dining room with an atrium ceiling and ceramic pillars. To get here, hop onto any bus going to Oxford Road Station (Stop B) and walk for one minute to reach Refuge.
One of the best scenes in Stay Close is at the beginning when Megan Pierce-Shaw (Cush Jumbo) and Lorraine Griggs (Sarah Parish) are reunited after several years. They have both been colleagues earlier and are reuniting after 16 years.
Megan is highly uncomfortable meeting Lorraine since Megan has given up her old life and has changed her name and identity, is now a mother of three children, and is marrying her boyfriend soon. Megan feels Lorraine will jeopardize everything that Megan has built over the past decade and a half.
In this scene, DS Michael Broome (portrayed by James Nesbitt) and DC Erin Cartwright (Jo Joyner) go to the nightclub Vipers to ask about the disappearance of Carlton Flynn (Connor Calland). As Broome and Cartwright are both police investigators, they think it is best to go ask around the club to check if anyone has seen Carlton since he may have visited Vipers earlier Friday night.
As soon as Broome shows his badge, the bald bouncer at the door says, "There's no discount for cops." Cartwright rolls her eyes and takes out a picture of Carlton Flynn, "We're investigating the disappearance of a young man, Carlton Flynn. Think he might have visited your club Friday evening?" The bouncer looks at the photo and says, "Nah. Never seen him." So, Cartwright responds, "Can we ask around? Maybe someone else saw him." He doesn't reply and changes the conversation topic to Broome and how his hair has turned gray.
This Stay Close filming location is the underground nightclub, Theatre Impossible, which is part of the Impossible venue. The gin bar and restaurant are used as other shooting areas for scenes from Stay Close. It is easily accessible from Liverpool Road and is on Peter Street in Manchester.
59fb9ae87f