Review of Stake Land (2010) by Matthew R — 23 Jan 2012

I got this on rental and thought it's not been given a cinema release in the UK so it will probably be terrible like many straight to DVD films. My god was I wrong. It's brilliant.

It tells the story of a world where Vampires roam free in the night an much of the world has been over run by them destroying the human population and devastating towns and cities. We follow a character called 'Mister' and his young companion as they travel to 'New Eden' a safe haven.

Now from the get go I didn't think this was that good. The vampires didn't feel like vampires because of their disfigured faces, more like zombies. However they grew on me as this film throws in different types of vampires which was interesting.

Now this film is an indie film so expect long silences between characters and interesting shots. Actually for this type of film I think it really added to the emotion and silence because it is a 'road/journey' movie.

Think Zombieland but with none of the humour and more action, feeling and emotion. Theres better character development as you see the young boy become a vampire hunter/killer.

I think this might be one of the best vampire films I have ever seen and I'd love for more indie films to go down crazy roots like this.