Stake Land

Home
Smell the Movies
Smell the TV

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	2010
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Jim Mickle
Genre:	Post-apocalyptic vampire tale
Starring:	Nick Damici, Connor Paolo, Danielle Harris, Kelly McGillis, Sean Nelson
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1464580/
Tagline:	The most dangerous thing is to be alive.
Favourite line:	"I fucking hate vampires."

It's post apocalyptic.
It's a vampire tale.
It's a post-apocalyptic vampire tale.

The plot:
The world has been decimated by a plague of vampires. America seems to have been the first to fall, the outbreak starting in the south and sweeping northward. People blockaded themselves into townships, but these proved useless. Now, all that survives of society is an occasional settlement, guarded fiercely, and a cult of religious fanatics known as The Brotherhood, keen that all should follow their God, and prepared to massacre anyone who resists.
We follow Mister, a craggy old vampire hunter, and Martin, a young man without a family who he has taken under his wing as they head north, attempting to find New Eden. Along the way, they'll meet skin headed brethren, blood spewing vampires and Top Gun's Kelly McGillis.

And it's quality stuff, to be honest.
An independent movie, this easily casts off the limitations that Hollywood imposes and offers instead a melancholic, relentlessly bleak little tale.
The special effects, though sparse, are effective enough, and the occasional moment of insane violence unsettling, for sure.
Tonally, this has echoes of Diary of the Dead, thematically, we can see glimpses of Near Dark and last years excellent low budget creature feature Monsters, so it's in damn fine company.
As with all good genre fare, this is allegorical if you care to look for it (the religious are worse than the infected), but this can just as easily be viewed as a straight forward monster movie, though a pretty damned downbeat one.
Not really breaking any new ground - although the vampire 'bombs' the Brotherhood drop were a novelty - this is still a sure-footed, miserabilist horror movie, just like Grandma used to make.
Liked it a lot.