VividSimon Simply Perfect

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Wuchak Released in early 2010 and directed by Jim Mickle from Nick Damici's script (co-written by Mickle), "Stake Land" is an adventure/horror movie about an orphaned boy, Martin (Connor Paolo), and a laconic, grizzled stranger called Mister (Damici) who teaches the kid how to be a vampire-killer as they team-up and journey through the post-apocalyptic landscape of Pennsylvania and New York on their way to a supposed haven in what used to be Canada. Kelly McGillis, Danielle Harris, Sean Nelson and Bonnie Dennison play people they run across in their travels while Michael Cerveris plays the leader of a whack job group of religious fundamentalists. I like the melancholic and realistic tone with the corresponding forlorn score, which is superb slit-your-wrist type music. This is basically an adventure movie in a post-apocalyptic landscape (think "The Postman"), but with extreme horror/gore elements. The zombies are undead and therefore vampiric in nature –coming out at night to suck the blood of the living. The "vamps" sorta take away from the gritty tone of the film because they're a little cartoony, but "The Brotherhood" are even more cartoony, particularly at the end when a former member turns vamp, but somehow retains his mental faculties. Why sure! However, I love the Northeast locations, shot in Pottstown, PA, and Middletown, NY. The film runs 98 minutes.GRADE: B

NateWatchesCoolMovies Jim Mickle's Stake Land is one of my favourite vampire films of the last twenty years, ousted only by 30 Days Of Night, but that one is tough to compete with in anyone's book. The vampire movie and all it's trimmings has been done to death a million times over, under every stylistic filter and narrative tweak you could imagine, so this one can't really break too much new ground simply by default, but what it does do is show us a bleak, lived in and worn out world, a world that has been under attack from vampires for a long time, and as such is starting to fray at the seams. These aren't quiet, regal, brooding vamps either, they're quick, feral nasties who actually pose a threat and cause a lot of damage, as our young hero Martin (Connor Paolo) finds out in an arresting opening sequence set in a farmhouse. Left without a family in a world he not ready for, he's taken under the wing of gruff and rugged Mister (Nick Damici, also the brilliantly talented writer behind Mickle's films), and the two set off on an increasingly tragic, Cormac Mccarthy esque trek across a broken world, finding lost souls and ravenous monsters at every turn. One thing that seems to escape many vampire films is an emotional core, something to latch onto amidst the cold and clinical happenings, but this one finds that in several key places, including the father son dynamic between Mister and Martin, as well as an encounter with a wounded pregnant girl (Danielle Harris in what is probably her best work so far). It's sad, downbeat stuff though, without much hope or solace for anyone involved. Kelly McGillis of all people has a brief appearance you can keep your eyes peeled for. Grungy, desolate, tragic, extremely well made, touching and unique in the vampire subgenre. Highly recommended.

SnoopyStyle People are turning into grotesque vamps. The remaining humanity survive in isolated communities or even as rumored cannibals. Mister (Nick Damici) is able to save young Martin (Connor Paolo) when his family is attacked by vamps. They are driving north. On the way, they rescue a nun Sister (Kelly McGillis) being hunted by two rapists. They are then captured by a dangerous religious cult leader Jebedia Loven. Mister and Martin escape leaving Sister behind. They continue north and take on pregnant Belle (Danielle Harris) and former marine Willie.This is well-made considering its low budget. Director Jim Mickle concentrates on a dirty ugly dystopia. The characters are simple and well-drawn. It's not breaking new grounds but it's got good grit. There are also some good actors and familiar faces. It's dirty and harsh. The long rambling road trip may actually fit better as a TV show.

GL84 After a devastating plague has reduced most of mankind to a vampiric state with small, isolated pockets remaining, a small group tries to survive a series of encounters with a ravenous group of vampires that started the apocalypse.This one was an enjoyable enough effort though it does have some flaws. One of it's biggest positives is the rather inventive take here on the vampire genre by melding it onto a post-apocalyptic setting usually reserved for zombie. While this does manage to inflict the creatures with some zombie-like behavior in their creation through a virus and their animalistic, savage behavior driving their attacks rather than the intelligent, cunning types usually portrayed in this kind of effort, there's a rather fun amount of time here with this ravenous new attitude. By featuring this type of attitude and really working on the aggressiveness here, this one manages to come up with some rather enjoyable actions scenes including the opening in the barn that brings them together, a vicious battle with the creatures at a remote farmhouse and a rather thrilling attack on a peaceful community that really serves as quite the highlight attack for all the chaos and action presented. Aside from the action, this one has plenty of impressive gore to really help this out as well though there's some additional bloodshed spread throughout this in the forest encounter with the creatures as well as the pretty good finale battle in an underground lair. There's enough here with this to be a lot of fun but it's not without problems, first and foremost among them the idea that a fundamentalist religious group is behind it all. The story aspects of this feature make no sense at all and is completely illogical to be done here for their whole plan is predicated on the idea of controlling such creatures and having them being controlled when there's not any shred of evidence that says otherwise. Not only that, but the concept of using these creatures as a harbinger of the apocalypse isn't the slightly bit rational and conflicts with the rest of the story rather badly. The last flaw here is the narration of the main character all throughout here, which really causes a lot of irritation problems throughout the first half by providing a lot of useless points over and over so it really turns into an overblown tactics that does nothing for the film. These hold it down a touch, but overall this one has enough to like to overcome this.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity.