DVD Reviews

Stake Land – Blu-ray Review

By Dana Rae Aug 4, 2011, 12:33 GMT

America has fallen. A vampiric scourge sweeps the nation, turning brother on brother and parent on child as the blood-hungry beasts take deeper and deeper hold upon the land. It s hard for the survivors to know whether to be more afraid of the creatures themselves or the violent religious groups that have sprung up in response, but there is clearly only one choice: fight or die. Connor Paolo (GOSSIP GIRL) ...more

In the wake of such post-apocalyptic movies in recent years (The Road, The Book of Eli, I Am Legend, Zombieland, to name a few), Stake Land joins the genre but manages to stand apart as an incredibly well shot, well-acted film with a solid story driven by characterization.

In an emotional first scene, the audience sees Martin (played by Connor Paolo, Gossip Girl) trying to leave with his family. They are loading the car when they are attacked. Martin was sent out of the garage to retrieve the family dog and that is probably what saved him.

Enter “Mister”, who is only known by that name (played by Nick Damici). He truly saves Martin as the thing in the garage attacks the boy’s family, and he continues to save him by teaching him to hunt the abominable things they are up against. With Martin’s family dead, Mister takes him under his wing and becomes almost a father figure to him.

With such a movie as Stake Land, I was unprepared for the rampant emotions I spent as an audience member. It really sucks you in. By the opening scene, I was unsure where exactly it was going to take me.

 I didn’t trust in the virtues most movies such as this adhere to: children, women and even pets will be protected. I shouldn’t have to see such things as this movie showed me, but yet I stayed to watch. Mainly because I knew it wasn’t going to end very well but I couldn’t look away.

The vampires or bloodsuckers or whatever you want to call them are not the sparkly type. They reminded me more of zombies in how they looked and acted. Their intelligence is gone and the need to feed controls them. On an interesting note, they keep mutating and some are harder to kill than others, which I thought was genius.

The story in a nutshell is that Mister is taking Martin to Canada, an Eden of sorts where there won’t or shouldn’t be any vampires. Apparently the vamps don’t care much for the cold. Along the way, they manage to pick up various other humans. One is a nun only called ‘Sister’ (played by Kelly McGillis, Top Gun), another is a pregnant teenage girl Belle (played by Danielle Harris). Another is a former marine, Willie (played by Sean Nelson).

The oddly matched group travels together trying to reach Canada as they come across towns that are ‘locked down’ to avoid contamination with the vampires. They are thwarted by bad guy Jebedia Loven (played by Michael Cerveris) who has proclaimed himself leader of a church that has a militia-like following. He is one that believes that God has brought the plague of vampires as a punishment.

Beautifully narrated by Martin, the movie is a haunting look at post-apocalyptic America.  The old ways are dead, as we see the evidence of flags forgotten, towns and cars abandoned, religious symbols left behind. The survivors must find a way to go on, to either hide behind town walls or fight the vampires out in the open.

The Blu-ray comes loaded with special features including two feature-length commentaries; a "making of" look at the film; video diaries by Jim Mickle which include a look at the pre-production storyboards and visual FX-post production; Toronto International Film Festival Premiere; and a Q&A. The real treat here is the seven short films that serve as character prequels to the movie.

This movie takes stabs at the life we know. It does not shy away from taking away certain expectations the audience might have. It is not a safe movie, and you won’t feel safe watching it. But it is expertly done, exquisitely crafted in every way. It is one of those rare gems that puts the ‘class’ in classic.

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