Don’t let a Rotten Tomatoes rating discourage you from watching a film with an intriguing premise. Horror films can range from outrageously cheesy to seriously scary. One person may think Hereditary was one of the most terrifying films ever, while my family and I found it uncomfortably hilarious. The life experiences you have, and your own set of cinematic taste buds affect how you enjoy a movie. The two movies that I will be writing about today are from the mid to late 2000s.
Survival Horror video game meets horror film in Stay Alive, directed by William Brent Bell. It has a super low score of 10% on Rotten Tomatoes. Has playing a videogame ever felt too real? When a group of young adults play a new video game and their avatars die, the players subsequently face a similar fate in real life. Hutch becomes a suspect of the recent murders in town because he is the one thread that connects all of the victims. Who would believe that a silly game was killing them all? This movie is steeped in lore about real-life serial killer, Elizabeth Bathory and introduces a supernatural element when the players must recite a spell to start the game and activate her sinister plan. While watching the film you might recognize actors Milo Ventimiglia and Frankie Muniz. It is fun to see these actors being relentlessly chased by a murderess ghost. Although this film employs all the typical horror movie tropes of jump scares and shadowy figures, I enjoy how it mashes together the supernatural slasher genre with video games. Never play a game that requires an incantation, spoiler alert, it won’t end well.
Have you heard of The Conjuring, Annabelle, or The Nun? Well, Dead Silence didn’t make the cut to be in James Wan’s The Conjuring universe. This film comes in at a whopping 20% on Rotten Tomatoes despite it being created by James Wan, the director of Saw and Insidious. This film stars Ryan Kwanten (True Blood) as a man who just lost his wife to a gruesome murder after he received a doll from his hometown and Donnie Wahlberg (New Kids On The Block), the detective who is investigating him. He goes back to the darkly ominous Ravens Fair where Mary Shaw and her dolls haunt the town. This film builds a world that shouldn’t be ventured alone. I always knew ventriloquists shouldn’t be trusted. I love the folklore surrounding Mary Shaw and the song that goes along with her urban legend. “Beware the stare of Mary Shaw. She had no children, only dolls, and if you see her in your dreams make sure you never ever scream… Or she’ll rip your tongue out at the seam”. It is fun to watch the movie and see how long you can go without screaming.
Both Stay Alive and Dead Silence use lore to craft horror villains that illicit the utmost fear in even the most fearless, making these films entertaining and undeserving of such low ratings. If you’d like to check them out, they are both available to rent on streaming services. Horror movie marathon at my house, I’ll catch you on Zoom.