Review of Stake Land (2010) by David J. L — 16 Jun 2011

Upon seeing the trailer for Stake Land (2011) I was very excited, it looked like an interesting addition to the vampire genre and it is, but not to the level of my expectations.

The biggest problem I have with this film is what to say about it, itâ(TM)s not great, itâ(TM)s no bad; its a bunch of movies that we have seen before just mixed and tweaked a little.

It is set in a post-apocalypse situation, seven years after a disastrous event in North America. Which just makes me think of Collapse. How am I going to cope when an event of such magnitude, because survival talents will become more important than intellectual capabilities that dominate society nowadays? Itâ(TM)s also a fairly compelling road movie to start, and contains many moments of shocking and savage action, provided by a zombie/vampire cross mutant that is surviving on the flesh of humans.

The story follows a man only referred to as Mister (Nick Damici) who rescues a teenager named Martin (Connor Paolo) from the creatures that had slaughtered his family. They proceed across the country for a place called âNew Edenâ� while being narrated by Martin, he is being taught how to handle himself, in the course of their adventures, which ultimately is a coming of age story.

Along the way they pick-up a nun (Kelly McGillis), a pregnant young woman, Belle (Danielle Harris), and a young man named Willie (Sean Nelson) all hoping to find âNew Eden.â� Unfortunately, they all soon discover that vampires are not the only evil things they have to worry about.

This is one of the problems I had with the film, A priest character that come back after a violent death as a âvampireâ� that is now a âsuper vampireâ�. He is stronger, faster and smarter than any of the others and he believes that this has been a gift to him from â~GODâ(TM). This injection of religion into the script I feel is totally unnecessary, probably due to the fact that the writers thought that the vampire/zombie mutants themselves werenâ(TM)t enough of a threat to our travellers.

Getting away from that, the world itself was pretty great. Itâ(TM)s not over vacant as there are still societies set up throughout the country attempting to live their lives, not everyone is a loner or in a small group. Itâ(TM)s great to see them going back to basics, trip wires and bear traps, baiting the vampire is just like hunting, there is nothing fancy here.

Stake Land is good but offers us nothing new or even any kind of an interesting story and the motivation to go to âNew Edenâ� is not apparent in any way. The world is interesting and most of the set pieces taken by themselves are good. I wonâ(TM)t be surprised if this is a hit with the masses, vampires and zombies are the go to creatures at the minute for horror movies and with it being a fairly cheap project, we could very well see a sequel.