Movie Review: Stake Land

Synopsis: Martin was a normal teenage boy before the country collapsed in an empty pit of economic and political disaster. A vampire epidemic has swept across what is left of the nation's abandoned towns and cities, and it's up to Mister, a death dealing, rogue vampire hunter, to get Martin safely north to Canada, the continent's New Eden.



I'll start by saying I'm just not a big vampire movie fan. Sure I watch True Blood and have read several vampire novels but I think the whole genre has been really watered-down and is just overdone (thanks a lot Twlight!). Sparkles? Seriously? But this low-budget direct-to-video indy release is a nice surprise.



Instead of being all lustful and horny, these vampires are just hungry for blood. The portrayal of them reminded me of the vamps in 30 Days Of Night, they're just savage blood-suckers. This makes it pretty brutal at times and not for the faint of heart. If you want to see your vampire fawning over some girl at her high school locker, look elsewhere. This movie is violent, dark and mean. There's a whole lot of gore and the red stuff flows freely and often.



But, having said that, this movie is also really focuses on characters and does a nice job of building them. They're flawed yet strong, believable and sympathetic. There's an underlying theme of religious right working as well, which also helps give the film more of a feeling of depth.



The acting is very nice, with Nick Damici in particular kicking butt in one of the main roles (Mister). His young sidekick, played by Connor Paolo, is solid as is Kelly McGillis, far removed from her Top Gun days. And you know I love anything with my personal favorite scream queen, Danielle Harris, in it.



Sure the film's a bit dirivitive. Think Zombieland (replace the zombies with fangers... and no comedy) meets Daybreakers with a bit of Carriers thrown in. Nothing new here, it's just the way it's handled. The direction is fantastic, the story is gripping and the characters are great. Add the fantastic and scary vampires in the mix and you get what I'll consider a new vampire classic in my library. This will sit proudly on my DVD shelf alongside After Dark, 30 Days of Night, The Lost Boys, Blade and the original Fright Night.



8/10