STAKE LAND

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Directed by:
Written by: ,
Starring: , , ,

FILM:
STAKE LAND

DIRECTED BY:
Jim Mickle

WRITTEN BY:
Jim Mickle
Nick Damici

STARRING:
Conner Paolo
Nick Damici
Danielle Harris
Kelly McGillis

 

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNC2HwAaWWE&feature=related[/youtube]

 

REVIEW BY SUB-EDITOR Ross Hughes

 

Vampires along with Zombies have had a rough time of late in the horror field.  Shaun Of The Dead was the best and probably worst thing to happen to the Zombie genre with many films since being released without the care for scare and making the walking undead nothing but a serious backdrop in an overall funny situation. Vampire’s too have had the rough treatment with the genre now becoming nothing but a stable of hot teenage Vamps fighting over the High School young girl while the under fifteen’s in the cinema cry to be bitten by this new sexy hunk.

Some may say that the two genres have never been so popular and that the two needed to evolve so they did not to fade away from the public eye.  There are those who believe Twilight is the best thing too happen to the bloodsuckers for many years, while Zombies weren’t cool until Woody Harrison bumped into Bill Murray at his mansion.  But then there are fans like me who just wish to be scared again.  I remember the days when these icons were one of the most frightening things on screen, when horror fans could not wait for Christopher Lee to rise again and for another Flesh Eater to cause a stir from behind the grave.  Maybe the trend started to buckle when Buffy was born and become this universal hit, I mean if a young girl can take on these fiends with just a gang of friends and a bad ass attitude, while making a mint in franchise, then why make a horror for the over 18 crowd.

To be fair to director Jim Mickle he has risen from this new found craze and tried to be different.  His last film Mulberry Street was a critically acclaimed little horror about a Zombie virus attacking a block of flats that won him many fans and his new film is about Vampires and of a few people trying to survive in a world of ruin.  To say he is trying to get back the feel of what made these characters tick and loved is an understatement and he should be applauded for going back to the roots that will no doubt make him respected among many fans.  But while the undying respect will be no doubt be there, there will also be a sense of frustration that by creating such decent two films, they lack the ingredient that makes good horror films become great horror films, and that is being scary.  Like Mulberry Street before it, you will find many things to like about Stake Land, you will no doubt enjoy the film and it may become a top ten best of the year, but one thing that you will all agree on is that for a horror film, it just does not rock your boat.  You may have been screaming at Insidious a few weeks back, but  Stake Land will just make you curious at how the story develops, and another problem it faces, is the road the characters travel on, is the same path you have seen countless times before.

undefined (Scream Queen Danielle Harris takes a backseat role)

Stake Land offers nothing new to the recent craze of post Apocalyptic America.  If you have seen The Road and the Book Of Eli then everything that happens in this film will come to no suprise.  America is a wasteland after an epidemic of vampirism strikes, cites are ruined and the remaining survivors are on the run from these vicious, feral beast. When his family is slaughtered, young Martin (Gossip Girl’s Connor Paolo) is saved and taken under the guidance of a grizzled, wayward hunter (Nick Damici) who is only known as Mister, a fearsome vampire stalker who kills Vamps with ease and  takes Martin on a journey through the locked-down towns of America’s heartland, searching for a better place while taking down any bloodsuckers that cross their path. Along the way they recruit fellow travellers, including a Sister (Kelly McGillis) who is caught in a crisis of faith when her followers turn into ravenous rapists, a pregnant girl  Belle (Danielle Harris) who Martin becomes quite attached to and a former marine in the shape of Willie (Sean Nelson) who joins the fight against the bloodsuckers but also to avoid the human Brotherhood, a fundamentalist militia headed by Jebedia Loven (Michael Cerveris) who are more dangerous than the creatures that fill the night.

The non explanation of why the virus struck is a refreshing change.  We the viewer are plunged head first into this nightmare world without a safety belt and its a theme that carries throughout the movie.  The characters we share the journey with do not get any back-story so its hard to relate to them but that does not mean we can not sympathise for their plight.  Mickle seemed intent to just show us a story of this “Family” without the need to bore us of their previous lives  Like Mister says to Sister when she does start to tell us about her how she got to this part of her life, “We don’t do stories!” and the film moves on.  Mickle probably feels that we the viewer do not really care about how they got there but where they are going to end and while it may put off those who love the deep character driven stories,  this ploy does make Stake Land have a real steady flow to the narrative drive.

Unlike The Road which was deep in misery and build up the suspense,  this horror like version makes sure its keeps the gore hounds happy with numerous scenes of blood soaked images.  There does not seem like a ten minute break before we get to another vampire attack and while I can not fault one or two of the set pieces on display, Stake Land does suffer from a case of repetitive loop in that the whole plot shows a gang moving from A to B, getting attacked, moving from A to B before getting attacked again, there is no variety and sadly offers nothing new to well known formula.

undefined Not quite Twilight is it?

The delights are the simple scenes that you can not help but marvel at.  The traps they set around an empty house after they gate crash it when night fall arrives are quite ingenious and for me personally, the best scene of the film is when at one of these houses they stumble across a young Vamp in an attic which brings a much needed emotional pull for the viewer.  The thoughts “what would you do?” ring through you mind and its there you realise that this wasteland that Mickle has created has wonderful potential but its wasted on the same old play we have seen countless times.

One of the main negatives is the Vamps.  The film could have easily been about Zombies because they are so similar in style that it was hard to sport the difference, they lack the bite and teeth of the much superior bunch of 30 Days Of Nights.  The best villains are not that of the undead but of the Brotherhood whose brutal policy in this ravaged land is a stark reminder that humans too can be just as dangerous and the religious element that surfaces throughout for a while puts Stake Land onto a different path which gets lost within the drive of the plot to get our four from one destination to another.

The two leads are great fun with Nick Damici kicking ass for fun while Conner Paolo shows great potential as his young learner.  Kelly McGillis is totally unrecognisable and somewhat wasted in the role of Sister, flirting in and out of the film while Scream Queen Danielle Harris is a welcome for underplaying the role of Belle quietly.  The direction is superb and for a film made out of such a small budget, the movie looks great and once again it shows great potential in Mickle who is no doubt destined for great things in this horror genre.
Sadly though while I enjoyed Stake Land and would recommend it to all the readers of HorrorCultFilms, the film itself was just not scary and that is a major flaw when you are trying to sell a horror to the die hard crowd.  The moody depressing tone and gloom setting reminds you of it being a Road knock off with a vamp element squeezed in which may have worked if it had one or two set pieces of frightening terror that enthralled the horror goer.  You like for Stake Land will depend on you love for that Viggo Mortensen film.

If you thought The Road was perfect in every sense then its best to leave Stake Land, but if you thought it lacked a bite, some great scenes of gore and a touch of the old Vampire, then Stake Land may just be up your street, and besides it knocks the fangs of anything Twilight!

Rating: ★★★½☆
[pt-filmtitle]Stake Land[/pt-filmtitle]

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About Ross Hughes 526 Articles
Since my mother sat me down at the age of five years of age and watched a little called Halloween, I have been hooked on horror. There is no other genre that gets me excited and takes me to the edge of entertainment. I watch everything from old, new, to cheap and blockbusters, but I promise all my readers that I will always give an honest opinion, and I hope whoever reads this review section, will find a film that they too can love as much as I do! Have fun reading, and please DO HAVE NIGHTMARES!!!!!!

5 Comments

  1. One of your finest reviews Ross, very well written and I can sense that you really wanted to like this but were held back by the points you made. It hasn’t dampened my excitement though mate 😉

    • I don’t know if it’ll be my cup of tea. I enjoyed the very first video we ever put online of that kid being killed. IS there kid killage in it? It may change my mind for the better.

  2. Not saying 8)

    But I am happy with that score……that rating is the general feeling I am reading among other sites 😀

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