Stake Land (2011)
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Reviews Counted: 60
Fresh: 45 | Rotten: 15
Though the genre is well worn at this point, director Jim Mickle focuses on strong characterization and eerie atmosphere to craft an effective apocalyptic vampire chiller that also manages to pack a mean punch.
Average Rating: 6.4/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 2
Though the genre is well worn at this point, director Jim Mickle focuses on strong characterization and eerie atmosphere to craft an effective apocalyptic vampire chiller that also manages to pack a mean punch.
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Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 5,873
My Rating
Movie Info
America is a lost nation. When an epidemic of vampirism strikes, humans find themselves on the run from vicious, feral beasts. Cities are tombs and survivors cling together in rural pockets, fearful of nightfall. When his family is slaughtered, young Martin ("Gossip Girl's" Connor Paolo) is taken under the wing of a grizzled, wayward hunter (Nick Damici) whose new prey is the Undead.
Simply known as Mister, the vampire stalker takes Martin on a journey through the locked-down towns
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Cast
-
Connor Paolo
Martin -
Nick Damici
Mister -
Kelly McGillis
Sister -
Danielle Harris
Belle -
Sean Nelson
Willie -
Michael Cerveris
Jebedia, Jebedia Loven -
Bonnie Dennison
Peggy -
Greg Jones
Martin's Father -
Traci Hovel
Martin's Mother -
Tim House
Sherriff -
Stuart Rudin
Pops the Barber -
Adam Scarimbolo
Kevin -
Larry Fessenden
Roadhouse Bartender -
Chance Kelly
Officer Harley -
Adam Folk
Soldier Crier -
Jean Brassard
French Canadian Canniba... -
Lou Sumrall
Brotherhood Man -
Vonia Arslanian
Dark-Haired Bartender -
Phyllis Bash
Old Woman
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Stake Land Trailer & Photos
All Critics (60) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (46) | Rotten (15) | DVD (5)
Mickle's observation of a devastated working-class America is so sharp that the horror elements, though effectively handled, come to feel like an afterthought.
Top CriticOther undead movies needlessly foreground the action. "Stake Land'' has its fight scenes, but here they're secondary.
Jeff Grace's melancholy music underscores the atmosphere of bleak dystopian despair, leavened by flashes of humour and hope.
Shows that a savvy mixture of characterization, atmosphere and gore-eographed suspense can make even the most familiar fright tropes feel vaguely organic again.
"Stake Land" bursts with action, ideas and interesting characters.
Mickle has talent, and the end credits include a character known as "French Canadian Cannibal," which is worth a half-star right there.
Stake Land is intelligently rendered horror. It's a cut above more recent efforts, being an accomplished and thoughtful piece of work and an overall, enjoyable watch.
Stake Land has strong characters, a lucid script, plenty of action, and something more substantial to make it better-than-average.
May be the best blunt-force-trauma, tear-your-throat-out vicious vampire film since Near Dark.
it's as dark as Harry Potter 19 might have been, and keener on exploring deeper themes than having an all-slaying, all-spurting, all-squirting orgy of fangbanging fun.
More admirable than fulfilling, expelling more effort with atmosphere than story, wasting time with stares when legitimate tension is desperately needed.
What sets this movie apart, however, is the appearance of a bizarre religious cult that could be more dangerous than the monsters. If only it had gone farther...
There's a scruffy immediacy to the direction... but also a grace to the imagery and a commitment to the performances.
The Road on supernatural steroids, the New York Times called it, and that's a pretty good short handle for it.
Although admirable for a low budget horror thriller, this is let down by inept storytelling.
Like Romero, Mickle has a pragmatic attitude to genre convention: even the corniest stereotypes can be turned to new purposes.
In Stake Land, the latest post-apocalyptic vision to hit cinemas, it is not vampire or cannibals you have to watch out for, but those nutters in the Christian right and all of the offensive caricature that comes with them.
Like the film version of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, it has quasi-religious overtones and one very good scene...
A super- low-budget-yet-visually-evocative genre movie done with almost utter earnestness.
Somehow its posse of American travellers, attempting to reach the Eden of Canada while assailed by vampires, seems a little dull.
The postapocalyptic landscape has become so familiar of late (The Road, The Book of Eli) it puts pressure on low-budget indies like this to deliver something new.
Jim Mickle is a fine genre filmmaker and Stake Land is a satisfying entrant in the 'post-modern vampire film' subset; if a little undernourished, it's still enough to whet fan appetite for his next project.
An angsty, bleak fantasy of America the lost.
Audience Reviews for Stake Land
Super Reviewer
Wish they hadn't done what they did to one of the characters, and for that I'm going to have to reduce half a star.
Super Reviewer
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- Mister: I hate vamps.
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Latest News on Stake Land
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