Interview: Jon Foster

Set to release in theaters on March 24th, Stay Alive is a film that brings the horror genre to a very familiar place: your gaming console. The film's characters come into possession of a mysterious game, "Stay Alive," which they know nothing about. That is until their friends start turning up dead—killed in the same manner that their in-game characters died. Will any of them beat the game before a gruesome murder at the hands of the game's "Blood Countess"? One man, cast member Jon Foster, knows the answer to this question and many others… With that in mind, IGN FilmForce caught up with him to pick his brain about the new film, video games, and Frankie Muniz.

IGN FILMFORCE: So, how did you get involved in with Stay Alive?

JON FOSTER: Well, Wonderland production company, who put this thing together, contacted me and gave me a script and I read it. They introduced me to [filmmakers] Matthew Peterman and Brent Bell and I sat down with them and they had this killer idea about not making a typical horror film and making something look really cool… the idea of adding the whole video game aspect. They were new on the scene and they were really excited about making a piece of art transferred into a horror film.

IGNFF: Can you explain more about making art into horror?

FOSTER: [Peterson and Bell] wanted to make something scary but without being unbearable to watch. They really wanted to focus more on the acting and the characters. The guy they hired for the [director of photography] is just a genius and what they wanted to do was make it look artsy. So, when you look at it it doesn't look like any horror movie you've ever seen. They add this whole idea of this video game and when you look at it, it looks better than most video games out but it's not so far out that you couldn't imagine it actually being a video game. So, when you see it, it's like, "God, it looks really cool." It's really hard to explain, but they really wanted to put this almost artsy, independent film together with a horror hold on it.

Foster computes with the cast of *Stay Alive*

IGNFF: Are you a gamer yourself?

FOSTER: I'm a big gamer. Recently I haven't been able to since I've been so incredibly busy but I've been playing games since I was 6 years old, so constantly.

IGNFF: What are some of your favorites?

FOSTER: You know, I know it's such a trendy thing to say, but Halo has just got everyone hooked, everyone and their mother. So, my buddies and I just play that all the time. But an all time classic for me is Duck Hunt, I'm a huge Duck Hunt fan.

IGNFF: If the movie does well and they decide to release the game that you play in the movie, would you play it?

FOSTER: Oh my God, yeah, man! I think anyone would. The second they see this one level in the video game they're just going to freak out. I mean it's a first-person shooter… nasty, overwhelming. It's just crazy. One shot you run around with double-fisted nail guns shooting little girls, it's pretty nasty.

IGNFF: The story of the game revolves around the "Blood Countess" and is supposedly based on a true story. Is it really?

FOSTER: It actually is, which was also a really cool thing about this movie… When they pitched it to me they said, "It's about this video game and the line between reality and [the game] is completely broken." The video game is based on a true story. There's a little girl who's name is Elizabeth Bathory… she supposedly came from Romania and killed over 500 young girls and bathed in their blood to maintain her youth. She had this massive torture chamber, set up a fake school, and got all these girls to come to this huge private school where, in fact, they were just getting kidnapped and tortured.

IGNFF: You mentioned the blurring of the line between reality and the video game - how does that work in the movie?

FOSTER: It's pretty wild. In the game we end up having to find the corpse of this woman, Elizabeth Bathory. In the mean time another character, Swink, played by Frankie Muniz, who is playing the video game and is finding weapons and dropping them in places in the video game which actually drops them in reality… in real life… so I can find them to use those weapons or tools.

IGNFF: What was it like working with Frankie Muniz?

FOSTER: He's a blast, man, no joke, this kid is the funniest guy I've ever hung out with. I mean, in the middle of shooting he'd bust into the Robot, he'd bust out dancing. It was really funny, he's a great cat.

IGNFF: What was your favorite part of working on Stay Alive?

Frankie Muniz with Jon Foster in *Stay Alive*

FOSTER: My favorite part? It's pretty hard not to enjoy it, just because when you're doing a horror film there's this very particular camaraderie that happens on set. I don't know what it is but it's so different from any other project I've done. The greatest part was being in New Orleans with this particular cast. It's funny, a lot of times you do movies and you create friendships but you don't really keep them because you're all on different projects and busy and it's understandable. But on this everyone has remained so close. I mean, I see the entire cast all the time and we hang out all the time. But being in New Orleans down there just felt like being at camp. It was just partying and having fun and running around and screaming covered in blood. It was just a lot of fun, man.

IGNFF: Do you have any new projects coming up?

FOSTER: Yeah, just finished a TV show three days ago. It's a series that will be coming out on NBC in June called Windfall. It's about a couple of lottery winners who win the lottery and it tells how the money affects their lives.