Rish Outfield's reviews
This movie had definite potential: a large group of nubile young girls are stalked in a locked-up Catholic School by an evil, unstoppable force. I'll bet there's even a good movie in that premise. But The Stay Awake was not it.
Overly European, some of the poorly-dubbed dialogue didn't even sound the right gender. It moved slowly at first, then ground to a screeching halt that continued almost until the end. Who really needs ten minutes of Camera-As-Killer roaming the halls, looking for victims, yet finding nothing? Time after time, the unseen killer would lurk, follow, and approach one of the girls, only to be gone when genuine tension was right around the corner. And when he finally started to kill, it made less sense than Basic Instinct on the Superstation. When at last we saw the killer's face, it was some poorly-made body suit with a plastic rat's head with bulbous red eyes. Why? That's not scary. There was never any explanation as to the killer's motives, or why he came back, or why he would be attacking people in Europe (though the supposedly American prologue took place in no America I've ever seen--obviously the same un-named and non-descript European locale the rest of the film took place in).
The only highpoint was how genuinely attractive some of these girls were, sparking hope that we'd get some cool interaction, real character development, or at least a good shower scene. Well, when they hit the showers, the scene immediately cut to what was going on elsewhere, as if this were a made-for-television movie somewhere and nobody told us. Perhaps they were 'minors,' you're saying, righteous indignation in your quivering voice. Well, the girls' teacher, also a hottie, wasn't a minor, and she had nothing to do either. Lack of nudity aside, none of these girls (except the one dubbed by a man) ever seemed to be an individual (just "Girl 1," "Girl 3," "Supposedly Fat Girl But Isn't", etc.) and I cared about none of them. All for the best, since the film ended abruptly and unexpectedly, with the 'all-powerful' killer easily defeated.
I feel I've wasted a lot of words and time describing this dull, not-entertaining failure of a movie. Don't waste yours.
Best Scare: There was a shot or two of the killer (in man form, not the dumb rat thing) with glowing eyes that worked real well.
I'd Recommend It To: Insomniacs, mostly. And even then, only to insomniacs I dislike.

The tyranist's thoughts
You might find it hard to believe, but I had a lot of trouble trying to stay awake during this appropriately titled movie. I guess they recognized just how hard it would be to keep their audience interested when they had a plot as weak as this one was. There were so many little stupidities and so many instances where something cool could have happened but didn't, that I think both Return to Horror High and Cutting Class are probably better movies to watch if you want to see horror inside of a high school. It it is horror inside of an exclusive boarding school over a long weekend then Talisman is the film for you. Just don't see this one. Of course, I doubt that you will be able to find it since we have only stumbled onto it once in a video store that had little self-respect, but a large list of very old titles. So on the odd chance that you do find it, take my advice, anything that you think might be promised by the blurb on the back is false.