Stake Land DVD Movie Review
Stake Land DVD Movie Review
Directed by Jim Mickle, starring Nick Damici, Connor Paolo, Kelly McGillis, Danielle Harris
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Stake Land is living (or perhaps "undead") proof of the power of an excellent trailer: I sure wanted to see the movie… until I did.
Stake Land is not a bad fright flick by any stretch, but when all was said and done I found it quite dull… as I watched I mentally renamed it "stake-bland" (though I do admit, I am not generally a fan of post-apocalyptic themes). I had to force myself to sit through it without hitting the fast-forward button on my remote in order to give it an accurate and complete review.
Much like The Road (and certainly not unlike AMC's The Walking Dead), Stake Land captures a father / son dynamic on a long and arduous journey across bleak and devastated country in hopes of finding sanctuary from those who would wish them dead. In The Road, it was desperate people doing anything unto others in order to survive. In Stake Land, it's vampires… and a religious cult.
Nick Damici (who co-wrote the film) plays Mister, a gruff, lone vampire hunter who, veering from his code of solitude, takes a recently orphaned teenager, Martin (Connor Paolo) into his protective custody after the young man is nearly killed. Once the two are paired, Mister teaches Martin about the tools of his trade and imparts his knowledge as best he can.
As if the gruesome bloodsuckers aren't bad enough, the two encounter a fanatical group calling themselves The Brotherhood (led by someone named, get this!, Jebedia [Michael Cerveris]) — the brethren believes that vampires were sent by God, and so they are hell-bent on stopping Mister and Martin from not only doing away with any more vampires, but also from reaching the fabled safe city of New Eden (in Canada, naturally) where they might find reinforcements. Along the way Mister and Martin (who narrates every step of the way) also meet up with an assembly line of stock characters, each one imparting some sort of new "lesson".
It's nice to see recognizable and talented actors like Danielle Harris (preggers!) and Kelly McGillis (a nun!) in these cameos, but it's not enough to keep one interested in the dreary proceedings.
While the script and direction (by Jim Mickle who brought us the rat-plague movie Mulberry Street a couple of years back) are tight given the subject matter, the story is tired, the acting is iffy, and the vampire creatures (who are quite a bit more like zombies, actually) are nothing special.
Having said all that, if you are predisposed to liking grim, ugly, mean and mindless vampires — I'm a fan of Dracula and Lestat, myself — then you may enjoy Stake Land's spare, gritty gloom.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson