Stake Land
| release date | April 22 2011 |
| studio | Dark Sky Films |
| director | Jim Mickle |
| writer | Jim Mickle, Nick Dimici |
| starring | Nick Damici, Connor Paolo, Danielle Harris, Kelly McGillis, Sean Nelson, Michael Cerveris |
| trailer 1 | Trailer #1 |
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By far the best horror film I’ve seen this year and probably going to be the contender for best horror film of 2011 just about beating Black Death. The film is full of dread, macabre, terror, pain and sadness but also filled with hope. The acting is surprisingly good for a independent, low-budget vampire/apocalypse flick with Nick Damici and Connor Paolo being the standout and to me breakthrough performances as vampire hunters on a journey to salvation. The atmosphere,vampires and unbalanced human beings doing evil deeds against one another sends chills down my spine and is terrifying and raw that makes this movie stand above the rest of its kind and raises the bar for vampire/apocalypse movies, it packs a bleak punch. The movie kind of though goes through similar territory from movies like The Road, Carriers, Daybreakers, Zombieland without the comedy aspect and a dose of Black Death but it still manages to stand on its own and it’s very novel in its own right. The movie is pretty brutal throughout and doesn’t hold back and is definitely not for the faint of heart or the easily offended and that’s what I like about this movie because it’s very bold and brave and is balls to the wall type of attitude that’s rare and usually can’t be found in most wide released, mainstream horror flicks and it’s like a present to fans who like their vampire movies hard and mean and are sick of movies like Twilight who are giving them a bad name, so thanks for this movie it’s a gem! Overall I was impressed and a movie like this deserves all the fans it can get and deserves a wide release and not shocking it doesn’t because hollywood is too dense to see a great movie even if it slaps it in the face! The ending left it open for a sequel so I really hope we get to see the light of day of Stake Land 2, bring it on geniuses. Highly recommended! 3.5 stars out of 5 stars.
Very good movie. It’s insane how BD gives this 3 skulls while piece of shit movies like Scream 4 get 4+ Skulls. That’s mind-boggling.
Excellent movie. Dark and different. Not your usual vampire schlock. I didn’t know I was watching a low budget picture. I rate it a 4 but am giving it 5 skulls just to spite BDs rating.
A violent and depressing glimpse into the lives of a vampire hunter and apprentice as they travel through a dilapidated, vampire infested United States. The run length does not do this film justice.
The BD review is way off with this one. I guess people want to see action packed or lovey dovey Vampire movies these days. Stake Land does something different with the genre and gives us a bleak glimpse into a world where humans are trying to survive and live in an undead apocalypse. This is The Walking Dead meets The Road meets Winters Bone, with bloodsuckers instead of Zombies. There are shock moments and blood and gore throughout but it’s not overdone or gratuitous. You do care about the characters, especially the pregnant Danielle Harris and Kelly McGillis who plays a Nun. You want these people to survive so when bad things happen, whether at the hands of vampires or fellow humans, you do feel sorry for them. The score also adds to the feeling of dread and loneliness. If you’re looking for a wall to wall action vampire flick you probably won’t like this but those who like human survival films will enjoy it. Highly recommended.
This movie was so awesome! It’s full of violence, gore & a hint of sadness. There is never a boring moment the only thing for me, I didn’t really care for the ending. :[ It’s similar to Zombieland but more serious & kinda similar to The Road but less depression & more horror.
Brad – R u freaking crazy? This is an awesome movie. This is the best horror movie of 2011. If I could I would have given it 11 stars.There maybe just a few things, which just disqualifies it from being a classic, but just a few notches short. I was damn impressed. Stake land drove a stake through my senses and left me wanting for more. Brilliant!!
I was pleasantly surprised by how well done this movie was with the budget it had.
The character development and story arch are well written with just the right amount of scares and gore.
Plus, it’s always cool to see Danielle Harris in pure scream queen fashion.
I loved it, Was an excellent take on the whole vampire genre, Danielle Harris was fierce as usual.
A new classic is born! STAKE LAND may be the Best Vampire Movie of the Decade!!! More than a perfect horror flick, it’s just a great film with superb acting, directing, and cinematography that you will not forget any time soon. EPIC, extremely intense, terrifying, and AWESOME, it puts TrueBlood to shame, while speaking directly and effectively to heavy issues like faith, family, and hamanity! I can’t recommend this enough. See It Now.
Bloody Disgusting calls this dreadfully boring and gives it three stars while a movie like Paranormal Activity which flat out IS dreadfully boring gets four stars. Are you serious?! Just ignore Bloody Disgusting’s review of this movie because it is honestly one of the best horror movies to come out in years. This site loses more and more credibility everyday with these reviews.
In my opinion best vampire flick ever, I really liked Mulberry street but this is far superior. We actually get some character development before they get vamped we actually can care about what’s going on the atmosphere was spot on ,think Walking Dead with vampires . I really dont get BD’s review this gem was definately not boring they give the German crapfest Rammbock 4 skulls?,that flick was lame this one delivers cant wait to see what this director does in the future with bigger budgets can we get a Stakeland 2?, the story is far from finished.
Um, I guess I thought it was okay… I mean, it was good, I liked it alright. It kind of reminded me of “The Road” but with vampires, and it came across insisting upon itself, which was kind of blah. I’ll recommend seeing it once and then decide what you think. I bought it, I own it, which is cool, but I probably wont ever watch it again unless I have a friend who wants to watch it for some reason, and even then I’ll probably just let them borrow it, because I don’t feel the need to watch it again and again. Plus, I’m just getting sick of vampire movies these days
It’s turned into a pop culture fad and it’s way too overdone now. That’s just my opinion. I’m clearly outnumbered here, so I wouldn’t take it to heart, haha.
And I think we need to remember that the BD reviews aren’t really any different than the reviews we give. They’re all done by someone different. Just a person saying “yeah it was good” or “No it was not”. Not really that big a deal. An opinion’s an opinion.
I see the down falls of Stake land, but it usually makes it up with Intensity, and acting. I still feel like the film was abit stale and Bleak on some moments. Could have used more, action but overall, Stake Land was an entertaining Apocalypse film, that happened to pull off “Vampires take over the world” type of deal!
A good movie. It’s a mix with Apocalypse and vampires. You will love it’s movie.
Stake Land is by far the best Horror movie I have seen this year. I would gladly put this movie in the same category as some of my favorite horror movies. If you haven’t seen this movie, do yourself a favor and at least rent it. A+
Stake land was sick. Awesome gore, a monsterous view of vampires (no Twilight shit here), and some good characters. The acting wasn’t always on it;s A game, but it didn’t hurt the fim to much. The filmakers obvioulsy knew how to use their budget. The atmosphere and look of the film is fantastic. Fresh entry in the overkilled vamp genre.
Score: 7.5
Without being a big vampire fan, I checked this movie out based on pure hype, and I am very glad I did. The movie starts out throwing a teenage kid into the arms of a bad ass vampire killer after his parents are killed (by vamps of coarse). Continuing on through the movie raising the kid to fight vampires and learn survival techniques along the way, but the story never really goes into detail about WHY or HOW this vampire invasion began. While usually that would be a major downfall for me, I found myself enjoying Stake Land so much that I really didn’t need a reason to continue questioning it. The characters (aside from The Brotherhood) are all enjoyable, creating a strong enough bond through out the movie that you hate to see them go.
The ending to Stake Land is a strong one, and one that I hated to see, only because I wanted the journey to continue. In short I really enjoyed this movie, and found that if a vampire movie is done right, it can be very enjoyable. I will be adding this to my collection soon, and will be hoping for a sequel in the near future!
Yet another recent horror film that is well-shot and atmospheric, but does little to nothing in developing its story or characters. Stake Land is basically comprised of a few good set pieces arbitrarily tied together by a dozen half-baked ideas. Prepare yourself for multiple story lines that go nowhere or end abruptly and a number of travelers that the two protaganists take on that are given no personality or even allowed a few lines of their own. Danielle Harris is especially wasted as a young girl defined entirely by the fact that she is pregnant and because we are barely even introduced to her; her death at the end has no impact whatsoever. It is, at best, a sloppy effort and at worst, an excessively edited mess.
This was such an amazing movie I can’t wait to pop it in and watch it again.
By far Danielle Harris’ best role and performance to date.
It has shades of many other apocalyptic films while managing to keep it’s own identity,and it does take itself seriously and that’s what I really love about it.No camp all horror drama and action.
‘Mr’ is one of the best film heroes to come along in years.
The cast is great even Kelly McGillis came out of the woodwork and gives an awesome performance.
I can’t rave enough about this movie..It’s different in that the vampires are like Zombies but you have to stake them and not shoot them in the head.This is my new favorite Vamp flick.Two huge thumbs up.
A satisfying and vastly entertaining take on the zombie apocalypse. The action is intense and varied and the performances are strong. Stakeland is one of my favorite vampire flicks, settling behind Let the Right One In(original) and Interview with a Vampire
Maybe I just don’t like vampire movies all that much. Granted, this was one of the more entertaining vampire movies I’ve seen lately, second maybe to Daybreakers, but it’s still a vampire movie. I felt that there were too many different concepts and storylines being strung together without a thread tying them together other than the characters involved. Some segments were better than others, but the ones you wanted to see more of were cut short, and the uninteresting ones went too long. Definitely a lot of potential for either a sequel to work the kinks out. More information here:
http://thewolfmancometh.com/2011/05/14/stake-land-2010/
Most likely Stake Land will be one of the best under the radar horror flicks of the year. Besides the somewhat slow pace, Stake Land is one of the most original vampire movies I have seen in a long time. A world destroyed by vampires, a group of strangers push forward to find land safe from the plague. Plenty of blood, disturbing moments, and great dialog that is sure to win fans over.
Considering how genuine horror movies are slim pickin’s these days, Stake Land isn’t so bad. It’s not good either. Zombieland minus the humor and star quotient. You’ve seen this a dozen times before. The vampires are very UN-scary. This is sort of like a shoot ‘em up video game, except it’s supposed to be a movie. Worth a rent. Your mileage may vary.
i’m gonna have to disagree with what slasher diva said, danielle harris’ best performance is in hatchet 2 :p
i’m gonna have to disagree with what slasher diva said, danielle harris’ best performance is in hatchet 2 :p
i’ve learned not to expect much from horror movies these days. they come out and get so overhyped and usually fall flat. so when i picked this up didnt have high hopes for it but was still interested. i was so taken by surprise with this movie, it was so fuckin rad,i couldnt believe it. as soon as it ended it watched it again. i didnt think the pace was slow, but it was defently tense and i really like the characters. danielle harris actually did a good job in this movie, which after hatchet 2 i didnt have much faith in her anymore. either the dont know if this will be considered a classic down the road but it was defently a breath of fresh air.
this movie was just completely stupid. the same thing happens over and over, run away then stop and get into a fight, run away then stop and get into a fight. acting, story, everything about this was pathetic. not worth your time.
I saw this movie at my cinema’s weekly horror sneak-peek meeting. Usually most of those movies are total garbage, so I never have high expectations. But this one blew me away. There are so many post-apocalyptic movies out there, but this one is truly one of the better films.
The vampires look awesome and is probably the reason why i rated this a 5/10 the rest of the movie got a little boring and the second half just kind of sucks.
Great post-apocalyptic/vampire flick.
“Stake Land” is without a single doubt one of the best post-apocalyptic-, best vampire-, best road-movies I’ve seen in a long time. Imagine something in the vein of movies like “The Road”, “Carriers”, “Daybreakers”, “Near Dark”, “Phantasm” & “I Am Legend” and you get the idea.
Jim Mickle’s direction and script are amazing, something I totally didn’t expected after his mediocre debut “Mulberry Street”. The whole movie is incredibly tense, chilling and atmospheric, but also pretty melancholic and emotional.
Highly intense and suspenseful scenes alternate with touching and deeply affecting moments, fast-paced action alternates with quiet and moody scenes – and, most important, it’s never boring ot tedious.
Furthermore, the bleak, abandoned sets and locations look just mindblowingly awesome, the gloomy soundtrack is strong, lighting and camera work look great, the gore is terrific and the grim-looking vampires are just stunning.
Best of all: cast and characters. Everyone delivers an absolutely superb performance, especially Nick Damici as cool vampire killer, Connor Paolo as orphaned teenager, Michael Cerveris as religious maniac, Kelly McGillis as motherly nun and Danielle Harris as gorgeous preggo.
“Stake Land”, an impressive little masterpiece and certainly one of THE must-see movies of this year.
Well made and executed apocalyptic tale of vamp executers surviving in grim times. Killer work done by Damici as Mister (convincing as a poor man’s Mickey Rourke) and Paolo as the sidekick kid being mentored on how to stay alive. The action and effects are both great, and the grim narrative sets a sad tone along with a bleak score–really adds to the overall effect of the Mister gang trying to make it through. Found this to be a somewhat touching story, of all things–and it is also a movie that is unforgiving on it’s characters, which is against the grain and cool. This is another dvd to come out of nowhere recently and be a nice suprise (see: Black Death).
Without going into too much depth….this is a refreshing movie grounded in some well worn genres. Think…”The Road” with vampires. It is very well acted and the story’s progression is engaging. The character development is fed more through the interaction and expressions of the cast and not spoon fed regarding details and exposition. The FX and action is very well payed out for an independent, but the strength of this movie lies in the characters without this movie would have lost my interest which it did not. I enjoyed it and would be very interested if they ever made a follow up. It’s nice just to see a vampire movie made today with some care and maturity.
b-disgusting? 3 skulls? are you serious? this was a great movie.. didn’t focus too much on the vampires but mainly on the characters.. kind of like how the walking dead focus on the characters rather then the zombies. i need found this boring at all.. while not perfect its still very solid.. also, i normally dislike vampire movies because they are ALL the same.. this one was different.. i’d give this a 4/5 but since bloody disgusting review pisses me off i’m gunna give it a 4.5/5 because its much better then a 3/5
Since the zombie genre is a tired one, one simply cannot get away with making derivative trash any longer; even the most uninventive, unoriginal of filmmakers are now being forced to embed a twist on the genre conventions in order to entertain. Sadly, this could still mean that their movie is nothing more than survivors blowing off chunks of undead flesh and walking through burning cities and the like. Sometimes, I’m fine with that; but in order to be credited as one with talent, the filmmaker must be at least somewhat creative. And if you still find yourself craving some zombie action even in these dark days; then I’ve got a movie for you. It’s called “Stake Land”, it’s an Independent horror film produced by Larry Fessenden, who owns Glass Eye Pix; the company that helped distribute the film. With his name attached, it will someday get an audience (hopefully when the rest of the world comes to terms with reality and realizes that Fessenden is just a really radical and cool guy overall). For now, I don’t expect that many will see it; but if they do, then boy, they’re in for quite a treat.
This bleak, depressing, but surprisingly involving spin on the zombie apocalypse situation/plot was written and directed by Jim Mickle, whose last film was “Mulberry Street”, an eccentric horror flick that was also about zombies, but that time around, the infection was spread through rats; and passed down to the people were some of the traits of that very infamous rodent. Mickle hasn’t necessarily made something terribly different here, but all-the-same, he once again proves that he can skillfully direct a movie that has both wit, substance, and material that prompts the audience to think. It’s not for everyone – most depressing apocalyptic tales are not – but in a world where excessive violence, gore, themes of both the political and religious variety, and zombies themselves are constantly being abused by no-talent writers and directors, this is admittedly better than the average horror movie, zombie movie, or of course, depressing apocalyptic movie.
A world-wide epidemic is destroying American and the surrounding countries as the characters in the film speak. The problem seems to be that somehow, vampire-zombie hybrids have become very much possible; and they are vicious, hungry, and fast to react. In a world such as this, if one does not fight back, then they are the next victim.
The protagonists here are Mister (Nick Damici, who also co-scripted) and Martin (Connor Paolo), a kid that the older man takes in as a sort of apprentice. Over time, we learn that Martin has accompanied Mister on his journey through silent, destroyed earth and forest; in exchange for fighting experience and overall companionship. The two have plans to make it far in their journey; although in a world that appears to be constantly decaying by the moment, where will they go?
The two walk a lot, talk a lot, drive a lot, and kill their fair share of vamps; as I think one should refer to them as. After all, it’s made clear that those unfortunately infected have more Dracula in them than born-again flesh. Anyways, I am getting slightly off track. In their travels, Martin and Mister encounter about as many humans as they do vampires. It doesn’t take too long for them to add a nun, a pregnant young woman (Danielle Harris), and a marine to the ever-growing and ever-decreasing group. Sadly, not everyone can survive in the end, but we know how where this grand adventure will eventually lead, we have the appropriate expectations, and for now, we wait.
I liked Mickle’s silent, observant treatment of this material. I am informed that his early intentions were to make a more excessive apocalyptic romp, which producer Fessenden disapproved of and referred to as “Terminator 5″. I am glad that he set Mickle straight and led him down the right path; to make his own movie. Instead of loud noises and violence, the director cares more about his characters – and there’s actually some well-written dialogue that is exchanged between a select few of them . I find it nigh impossible not to admire that; this could have easily been a dud, but it’s energetic, visually accurate in its approximation of what it’s like to live in a world of hell, and there are actually some brilliant little scenes that stick out in particular. In the story told, the group is captured by a religious cult; who believe that the hell-on-earth is the work of God himself. I can’t say I was surprised that such people showed up; they always do in these kinds of movies. I imagine Mickle did his homework before he made “Stake Land”, and while it doesn’t have the best ending, or the most flawless of characters (save for Mister, who’s a badass in every last sense of the word), but what it does have is a skillfully executed view of the end of days, creative and never over-the-top disgusting gore effects, and surprisingly enough, a purpose. It revives my faith in the zombie film; but then again, I suppose every year, someone’s got to do that.
Stake Land, plays out like The Road, but with vampires. I found it entertaining to see such a moody, dark and authentic take on the vampire mythology told against the backdrop of an apocalyptic landscape. I think the director, Jim Mickle, will be one to look out for in the future. His subtle tone and progressive character development in such a horrific setting handled with precision of a man who is confident of his skill, and for the most part he hits the nail on the head. My only gripe is that it wanders into the cheesy, clichÃ
One of 2011′s best horror films! Hands down one of the Zombie generes best!
Not your average vampire movie at all but that’s a good thing. If I had to compare it it would be kinda like a zombie film or The Road with vampire’s. This was a very unexpected movie for me because I didn’t know anything about it except that it had vampires. I’m glad to say it’s one of the best vampire movies to come along in the last couple years. If you like vampires or zombies or post apocolyptic movies then check this one out, you won’t be sorry. The ending is a little lack luster though.
pretty original vampire flick, for a change
More of a post apocalyptic film than a vampire movie with the emphasis on characters instead of gore. That’s not to say that the vampires aren’t gory, but they almost play second fiddle to the rest of the action. I liked a lot of the characters – they were real, sympathetic and tough – no whiny brats you wanted to die and they acted logically. There were several points that I thought were going to follow convention – volunteer militia hinted at 28 Days Later scenarios, but they smartly steered clear of retreading old territory. More thoughtful than terrifying, and very good overall, although there is a certain vampire in the movie that really wasn’t necessary and to me took away from the realism of the rest of the plot.
Good movie..