First Stop, Stake Land

Welcome to Stake Land, home of the vampires. When the crap hit the fan several years ago, the world was promised by the powers at hand that a 'new world' would be born, that everyone would be taken care of.

Baby, its whats for dinner.

Unfortunately for most people, the higher ups simply tucked tail and ran. In this post-apocalyptic horror show that has become America you survive off your wits, what you can scrape up and get, and what you can barter for. You do all of this while you avoid the horrors of the night, and the freaks in the day.

Stake Land is not your typical Vampire movie; it is truly more of a coming of age story set in a post-apocalyptic America. In a world full of blood sucking vampires and over the top religious freaks you have to have wits to survive.

We follow an experienced vampire killer "Mister" and his young protégé "Martin" on the trip to try to get to New Eden where it’s said the land is safer than anywhere else in the world from the vampire threat.

Where ever man has fear, He Create God.

While they travel Martin and Mister come across several interesting folk, some of them even get to come along for the ride. Dodging religious cults, blood suckers, robbers and even the demons that come from the fear that man creates himself prove a difficult road indeed.

Low Budget Gem

Stake Land has an overall tone of despair and futility, perfect for a post-apocalyptic film. The director takes great lengths to make sure that you are both immersed and interested.

The steps taken to make it seem as real as possible are also very nice indeed, everyone that does such a movie does abandon cars, a few even remember that there are more than monsters and your main cast in the world. But very few movies remember that pockets of humanity still exist, that there will always be crazy cults that try to appease whatever god they can create to save them from the hell on earth.

Road Block

Even details about various types of vampires are not over looked, the new ones are clueless, others are harder to kill having been around longer and mutated to adapt to the surroundings. None of them are very good in the cold because of what cold does to corpses.

While you are watching the movie, those that are paying close attention can even identify other people later in the movie among the dead, not just some random extra's or fake corpses.

While a low budget movie, it’s a gem. Stake Land was even able to attract some of the stars of years past such as Kelly McGillis as a nun going through her own hell. (Remember her dancing with Tom Cruise?) Danielle Harris (Last Boy Scout) also did an amazing job in her role as well.

The ending, for me was a bit of a letdown. It could have been summed up a little bit better in my eyes, but this type of ending fits good with the general category of post-apocalypse, but it is not a mindless blood fest full of sexxy vampires. It's a horror film with some good acting to it, unlike Kiss of the Vampire.

Even with the slightly disappointing ending (VERY slightly), I would recommend this movie to anyone who loves the 'aftermath' type feel of world ending in a movie, and as far as a vampire movie?

It makes the cut there as well; though I would consider this more of an 'action thriller with vampires' than a 'vampire thriller'. Either way though, having watched it, I do not feel my time was wasted, and have recommended it to my friends.

Amazon.com Widgets

You can pick up Stake Land on DvD I popped the extra three dollars for the 2 Disc Special Edition myself, my room mate bought it and it looks amazing on blu-ray and if money is real tight you can also download directly from Amazon

There is no excuse to miss this movie if you are a vampire movie lover.