Stay Out Stay Alive (2019) (Review)

Stay Out Stay Alive (2019) Synopsis: Shadowed by a haunting presence in the redwood forest, five young hikers discover an abandoned goldmine dating back to the Gold Rush and descend into madness and greed as the pursuit of easy riches consumes them.

I was enthralled by this film for the first half-hour. After that, it quickly became very boring and the protagonists increasingly annoying. What’s more, it goes round in circles. Some things are repeated, others happen too quickly. Fear is based solely on jump scares.

There are two or three good moments and two or three beautiful images like the moment with the deer or the way everything rushes into a hole following a huge sinkhole and mudflow, resembling an earthquake.
Well… I don’t blame myself!

Everything I’ve read about this film like “4 stars”, “Superbly scary”, “Based on real events”, “a tense journey” are just typical lies made by people who don’t know how to sell a film or promote it. It’s always tempting, though, to see people in a car, driving along, arriving in a huge forest and getting ready to go for a hike. But it’s not easy to make a good, or even very good film out of it. This one just plain sucks!

I’m glad to see that the director, Dean Yurke, doesn’t seem to have done anything else after this film, which was four years ago. That’s a wise decision. He should change jobs.

My Rating