Review of Stake Land (2010) by Sarah L — 26 Mar 2012

Effective low-key vampire-apocalypse road movie from the team behind the less successful (but already promising) Mulberry Street. Bloodsuckers notwithstanding, this is really a zombie variant, distinguished in the main by its excellent use of decaying rural and small town locations.

Co-writer Nick Damici gives an unshowy Bronson-esque lead performance, while there is surprising support from an almost unrecognisable Kelly McGillis. Overall it's maybe a little too humourless, episodic and lacking in forward momentum to really sustain (and the villainous Christian sect is a bit of a seen-it-before fish-in-a-barrel target as an antagonist), but there's enough there to make it at least worth a rental if you like the genre.