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It was late at night when I got to view Stay Out Stay Alive (2019) after a day of work. Rain was falling outside in a steady stream of tears from heaven and forest fire prevention. Reality television often puts ‘black ants’ and ‘red ants’ together to make what they think is a program that people will watch. A few of the human race like to see people fail in getting what they want or think they should have. What if that failure was the death of someone you had known for years? The old story of receiving a box with a push button in the post with instructions to push it and someone dies that is bothering you in your life. Would you do it? Well, these are the questions raised by Stay Out Stay Alive (2019).

Hollywood did this years ago with the non-genre gold standard (No pun intended) for greed,...

Stars: Brie Mattson, Brandon Wardle, Sage Mears, Christina July Kim, William Romano-Pugh, David Fine, Barbara Crampton | Written and Directed by Dean Yurke

[Note: With the film now out on DVD in the UK, here’s a reposting of our review of Stay Out, Stay Alive; now under the shorter title of Stay Out]

Another generic (and not very good) name for a low budget horror movie, so it’s fair to say that I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from Stay Out.

I’m glad to report though that this isn’t quite as generic as I expected and there is plenty of things to enjoy here. I was not surprised at all when I looked up director Dean Yurke and discovered that before this, his directorial début, he has worked a lot in visual effects and in big shows or films such as Loki, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and much much more. And it shows because despite a low budget the effects used here a very good on the whole. Clearly, they...

Stars: Brie Mattson, Brandon Wardle, Sage Mears, Christina July Kim, William Romano-Pugh, David Fine, Barbara Crampton | Written and Directed by Dean Yurke

Another generic (and not very good) name for a low budget horror movie, so it’s fair to say that I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from Stay Out Stay Alive.

I’m glad to report though that this isn’t quite as generic as I expected and there is plenty of things to enjoy here. I was not surprised at all when I looked up director Dean Yurke and discovered that before this, his directorial début, he has worked a lot in visual effects and in big shows or films such as Loki, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and much much more. And it shows because despite a low budget the effects used here a very good on the whole.

"Hey, I'm Penny." As I look up at the sound of her melodic voice, a petite hand—nails chewed down to the cuticle—presents itself in front of me. She is wearing a long, red-and-brown tie-dyed hippie dress with four-inch stripper heels and a full face of makeup. Acting since childhood, Penny had worked on a few big-budget movies and played the daughter in a short-lived but rather well-known television series. Her performing arts high school boasted a student body that now makes up the Who's Who of Young Hollywood. In her mid-teens she traveled the world as the opening singer for a prominent boy band. She was groomed for success. We were both studying under the brilliant Robert Carnegie at Playhouse West. I had just moved to Los Angeles—starry-eyed, bushy-tailed. And as it turned out, we are both repped by the same prestigious boutique agency, so we begin...