Stake Land Movie Review 189

Stake Land is a 2010 horror movie directed by Jim Mickle who also directed the horror movie Mulberry Street and it stars Connor Paolo, Kelly McGillis and Nick Damici.

The movie begins with a boy called Martin(Paolo) who explains that there has been a vampire epidemic and there are millions of them roaming the country. The remaining humans survive in groups and they have to kill the bloodsuckers. His parents were murdered by vamps and he was taken in by a mysterious vampire hunter called Mister(Damici). They forge a bond and travel together through the country, staking their victims as they go. Mister calls it Stake Land. Mister trains Martin to kill and with every vampire staking, he becomes a little better.They are searching for a place called New Eden where there is supposed to be some sort of refuge from the craziness. They rescue a nun (McGillis) who is being chased by two guys intent on raping her. Mister kills the two of them. They go to an abandoned motel and lie low for a while. The vampires come and they kill them, leaving the nun shocked by the violence of it all.

They stumble upon a cult the next day and the leader of it is called Jebedia Loven(Micahel Cervis) and he is pissed at Mister because the two guys he killed were belonging to the cult and to make it worse, one of them was his son. They take Mister out to the middle of nowhere and leave him to the vampires. They take Martin and Sister with them. Martin escapes. He feels bad about leaving Sister behind, but he wants to find Mister.

He does find him and they drive off. They come to a bar and they go in to get a drink. They meet a girl there called Belle(Danielle Harris). She is pregnant and she wants to find New Eden too. They all set off but she is slow. They find another person called Willie(Sean Nelson). He is a marine and he joins their gang.

On their travels, they come upon Jebedia Loven again and they capture him. They cut him and leave him out for the vampires. They reach a checkpoint and they enter a town where there are loads of people and lots to eat and drink. They meet Sister there. They are enjoying themselves when a helicopter comes along and drops in vampires who kill loads of the people. It turns out to be the brotherhood cult who did this. The vamps are killed and Mister, Martin, Belle, Sister and Willie head off again. They are camping out then they are faced with loads of vampires. They have to run. Sister gets cornered and she kills herself. They camp out in a school bus and when Willie goes outside to relieve himself, he doesn't come back. They find him hanging from a tree. The vampires have gotten him, but they seem to be getting smarter. Belle disappears next and when they follow her voice to a camp, they find her tied up. Suddenly, Jebedia turns up. It seems that he has been turned into a vampire, but he can talk and he can use his brain. He faces off with Mister and Jebedia gets killed. Belle dies.

The movie ends with Mister and Martin coming to a house. They meet a girl called Peggy(Bonnie Dennison ) who Martin likes. Martin kills a vampire for Peggy. Mister realises that Martin has become a man and that he doesn't need his help anymore. The next morning, Martin looks for him, but Mister has gone. He and Peggy head off and finally reach New Eden. This movie was very good. I liked it a lot. There were solid performances from all the cast and it was well filmed and the vampires were creepy. All in all, a very good vampire movie. Just a note, it did resemble Zombieland, but that can't be a bad thing, can it? It is a decent horror movie and I look forward to seeing more from this director! I give this a 8/10.