The best way to describe Stake Land would be, The Walking Dead with Vampires instead of zombies. This is a great strength of the movie and this definitely could have been turned into a compelling television show. The cast is great because they are mostly unknowns with the exception of Danielle Harris, who has been in a lot of genre movies such as Halloween and several others. By having almost exclusively unknown actors in the movie, the viewer will see these actors as being the character they are play not "acting" as the character. The main characters in the movie, Mister and Martin, are great character to build the movie around. Mister is like vampire playing ninja, and Martin is just a regular kid trying to adjust to a world consumed by vampires.
There is no hope in the movie that the vampires will be eradicated , and the characters don't really even mention it in the movie at all. Mister and Martin are trying to get to Canada, referred in the movies as New Eden, where the vampires have not spread. This movie is not all action packed as the director and writers try to also show the struggle of the characters to just simply survive. Going from shantytown to shantytown scavenging for ammunition, food, and clothing. Also seeing them pass by houses with signs such as "one alive inside" are constant reminders to the characters of the "new world" they are living in. I loved that there were no flashy and over the top sequences in the movie, everything is filmed with realism. Colors are muted and fight sequences are up-close and personal with most of the action being hand to hand combat. If a network was smart they would try and develop this movie into a series, hopefully a cable network because the series would be brutal.
If you like "real" vampire movies and are a fan of apocalyptic movies then you will enjoy this movie. This movie had all of the things I look for in a movie like this, good story, great action, and believable acting performances. I really how that this movie leads to a resurgence of high quality low budget horror movies.
No comments:
Post a Comment