10 Best Guilty Pleasure Horror Movies You Probably Missed

8. Stay Alive

Thirteen Ghosts
Buena Vista Pictures

2006's Stay Alive may have been near-universally panned by critics upon release, but there is an entertainingly scuzzy throwback quality to it, nodding to classic "evil video game" movies like Brainscan and David Cronenberg's Existenz.

The premise is simple - if you die in the titular video game, you die the exact same way in real life a few minutes later.

Though there's little in the way of grace or intelligence to William Brent Bell's horror, and respected actors like Jimmi Simpson, Wendell Pierce, Alice Krige, and Frankie Muniz would probably rather scrub it from their filmographies, it is a textbook example of a movie that's thoroughly enjoyable in its "badness."

Even back in 2006 this felt pretty dated - for context, it came out the same year as Saw III - but it's clearly made by people who actually enjoy video games rather than being a completely soulless corporation-driven vehicle. You could never call it genuinely good, though.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.