Opening text reveals the inspiration behind this “based on true events” tale; the gold rush of the 1850s brought an influx of prospectors to the Yosemite Valley, instilling hostile tensions between the prospectors and the Native Americans that lived there. It escalated into violence and bloodshed, and eventually, Ahwahnechee tribe chief Tenaya placed a curse upon the land. Cut to a group of five heading out to that very area for a camping trip. Whatever could go wrong? It’s not Tenaya’s curse that’s the groups undoing, though, but greed in a part supernatural part psychological descent into madness that feels an awful lot like The Shining in many ways, but without the deft touch of Kubrick.
Stay Out Stay Alive is the feature debut by Dean Yurke, who also produced and penned the screenplay. Yurke has over 20 years of visual effects experience, from major Marvel tentpoles to Star Wars to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and beyond. That experience translates well to the visual aesthetic of this low budget thriller. It’s absolutely gorgeous. From the production value of the nature setting, to the effort placed in the film’s special effects, this is one low budget debut feature that doesn’t look like a low budget debut. The promise of an old supernatural curse also presents an intriguing set up for a horror film, too.
When Donna (Sage Mears) goes hiking in the dark to get away from the two couples canoodling at their campsite, she falls into a mine shaft uncovered by a recent earthquake. She’s found the next day by her friends, her leg pinned beneath a boulder too heavy for them to move without help. The good girl of the bunch, Amy (Christina July Kim), is desperate to run back to the ranger station to retrieve Ranger Susanna (horror vet Barbara Crampton) and her partner Officer Drake (David Fine), but is stopped when the remaining three members find an abundance of gold still waiting to be mined. With wealth literally dangling in front of their faces, the group makes bad decision after bad decision under the watchful eyes of spirits still haunting the area. It’s Donna and Reese (Brandon Wardle) that are most corrupted by the greed; Donna is willing to risk her life and Reese is slowly driven toward homicidal madness.
Despite a beautiful looking film and an interesting plot, it’s in the script that the flaws emerge. The character work and pacing bogs the film down, even at a scant 82-minute runtime. Each of the core five are presented as stock type characters, the party girl, the ditzy one, the solemn girl with secrets, the jerk, and so forth. We never really know Reese at all until he’s already undergoing his transformation into Jack Torrance levels of jerk. The two most experienced actors of the cast are Crampton and Fine, but they’re supporting characters in minimal roles. There are stretches where not much is happening and then stretches where it’s barreling through character arcs and story beats. It doesn’t help that Lawson Rollins’ score doesn’t match what’s happening on screen- a climactic moment that should have intense music to match instead has a melancholic, slow twang. The score often drowns out the dialogue, too.
Yurke has an eye for framing, and his experience on visual effects means a strong grasp on how to use them. The supernatural elements are there, but they’re wisely kept at a minimum so it never looks or feels cheesy. But this fledgling director is still struggling to find a balance in juggling all of the moving components of a feature film. Yurke essentially takes The Shining and sets it in an abandoned goldmine, but he doesn’t deviate from the characters’ trajectory at all. In the end, Stay Out Stay Alive teases an interesting set up wrapped in a pretty package, but it falls into all too familiar horror trappings.
Stay Out Stay Alive made its world premiere at the Portland Horror Film Festival.
