Movies
Stake Land
“Even through all of the flaws, Mickle and Damici deliver a highly ambitious film that was probably too much to handle.”
Jim Mickle’s a crazy awesome director. The dude has serious talent. Did you see Mulberry Street? Yeah, heavy sh*t there. I was insanely bummed out when I missed his sophomore effort, Stake Land, at last September’s Toronto International Film Festival. With an April release slated by Dark Sky Films, I finally got to take the post-apocalyptic trip riddled with vampire-esque creatures out for blood. It wasn’t as cool as I pictured it in my head…
Stake Land is a coming-of-age story that follows Martin (Connor Paolo), a young orphan being mentored to go off into the world on his own. Writer Nick Damici plays “Mister”, an unnamed badass protecting Martin from infected vampire-ish creatures roaming the land. The duo head north in hopes of hitting weather that said creatures shouldn’t be able to withstand.
While beautifully shot and uber-violent (at times), I was incredibly frustrated with the characters and pacing. I kept asking myself whom the movie was made for, and couldn’t come to any conclusion. It’s dreadfully boring as the audience spends most of the time watching nothing happening. Mickle would blow my mind with some insane sequences – like when a town has a slew of vampires dropped on ‘em from a circling helicopter – and then immediately go back into boring mode. I’m not sure how much of this can be attributed to budget, an uneven score, or just poor editing, but it did feel like there was a pretty good movie in there somewhere. We get to see a vampire eat a baby for God sake!
Even more frustrating were the bleak, colorless characters. It was insane how little I cared for Martin, Mister, and even the pregnant Belle (played by Danielle Harris, who has top billing on IMDB even though she’s barely in the movie.) The shocker is how cool Mister could have been, I mean seriously, we could have easily had a new Ash or Reggie on our hands. All of the protagonists lacked a certain sense of energy, urgency and mystique. It was as bland and dry as you can get…
Even through all of the flaws, Mickle and Damici deliver a highly ambitious film that was probably too much to handle. Stake Land felt like the ideas of all 6 of George Romero’s zombie movies crammed into one vampire film. Everything becomes sort of common knowledge and is brushed over, even though the apocalypse is as fresh as ever. How the heck do they know so much, especially if the vampires are “evolving”.
Putting aside logic gaps and pacing issues, the special effects work was extraordinary; the creatures are absolutely amazing, and there’s a hefty amount of gore. Many of the film’s action sequences were well choreographed and are probably the only thing keeping Stake Land from being 100% forgettable. Still, the direction taken is mindboggling to me, and I can’t seem to get off the subject of who this was made for. I guess there are people out there who enjoy a snail-paced post apocalyptic quasi-vampire film?
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
Adam Simon (The Haunting in Connecticut, “Salem”) and Tim Metcalfe (The Haunting in Connecticut, Kalifornia) penned the script. The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallace.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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