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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.
All Critics (65) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (17) | DVD (3)
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. Sep 12, 2011 | Full Review…
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.
Ben Sachs
Like Romero, Mickle has a pragmatic attitude to genre convention: even the corniest stereotypes can be turned to new purposes. Jun 22, 2011 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…
Like Romero, Mickle has a pragmatic attitude to genre convention: even the corniest stereotypes can be turned to new purposes.
Jake Wilson
An angsty, bleak fantasy of America the lost. Jun 16, 2011 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…
An angsty, bleak fantasy of America the lost.
Cath Clarke
Other undead movies needlessly foreground the action. "Stake Land'' has its fight scenes, but here they're secondary. Jun 16, 2011 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
Other undead movies needlessly foreground the action. "Stake Land'' has its fight scenes, but here they're secondary.
Ethan Gilsdorf
Jeff Grace's melancholy music underscores the atmosphere of bleak dystopian despair, leavened by flashes of humour and hope. Jun 15, 2011 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
Jeff Grace's melancholy music underscores the atmosphere of bleak dystopian despair, leavened by flashes of humour and hope.
Nigel Floyd
Shows that a savvy mixture of characterization, atmosphere and gore-eographed suspense can make even the most familiar fright tropes feel vaguely organic again. Apr 28, 2011 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…
Shows that a savvy mixture of characterization, atmosphere and gore-eographed suspense can make even the most familiar fright tropes feel vaguely organic again.
Robert Abele
Don't misunderstand -- if you want to follow a few tough folks battling their way through a monster-infested world, Stake Land delivers. It just could have been thought out more thoroughly. Feb 14, 2019 | Rating: B- | Full Review…
Don't misunderstand -- if you want to follow a few tough folks battling their way through a monster-infested world, Stake Land delivers. It just could have been thought out more thoroughly.
Abbie Bernstein
Essentially a far-better-than-average B-movie, slick in presentation and able to keep up a steady pace. May 15, 2018 | Full Review…
Essentially a far-better-than-average B-movie, slick in presentation and able to keep up a steady pace.
Shelagh Rowan-Legg
This landscape, although dressed in the trappings of genre, is a thinly veiled exaggeration of America's current, divisive culture wars, with Mickle and Damici leaving little doubt as to where they themselves stand or what is at stake for humanity. Feb 23, 2018 | Full Review…
This landscape, although dressed in the trappings of genre, is a thinly veiled exaggeration of America's current, divisive culture wars, with Mickle and Damici leaving little doubt as to where they themselves stand or what is at stake for humanity.
Anton Bitel
This is no gallows comedy, it's a survival drama in the mode of The Walking Dead. It has more in common with The Road or George Romero's late Dead films than most vampire films... Feb 12, 2016 | Full Review…
This is no gallows comedy, it's a survival drama in the mode of The Walking Dead. It has more in common with The Road or George Romero's late Dead films than most vampire films...
Sean Axmaker
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. Apr 21, 2013 | Rating: 8/10 | Full Review…
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.
Alan Diment
Stake Land has strong characters, a lucid script, plenty of action, and something more substantial to make it better-than-average. Dec 29, 2011 | Rating: 7/10 | Full Review…
Stake Land has strong characters, a lucid script, plenty of action, and something more substantial to make it better-than-average.
James Plath
"Stake Land" is "The Walking Dead", but with vampires. Unfortunately, that also means it's a bit slow at times. However, for a low budget film (which I assume this MUST be) in the action/horror genre, the film makers have done an exceptional job. "Stake Land" is exciting and thoughtful with reasonably solid character development. (Too bad they didn't spend a little of those creative juices on the title.)
Super Reviewer
four stars
Starts brilliantly, but fails to live up to the scene it sets in the first 5 mins. More post apocalypse than vampire movie. Decent enough to be better than most of the crap out there.
A very brutal, dark, depressing movie with a great cast...more of a drama with plenty of scares, and gore, thrown in. I expected this to be cheesy, low budget zombie/vampire apocalyptic film. Instead, it turned out to be a well acted, tightly written film. This movie isn't for someone looking for cheap horror thrills. This one definitely has a deeper, slower moving vibe....
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