Vampire Flicks: Stake Land (2010)

Have you ever heard of the novel Fangland, by John Marks? I've been vaguely aware of it for a long time, mainly because, for a little while in the 2000's, it was said that a film adaptation was in the works, one that was originally slated to be directed by John Carpenter. And when that didn't happen, the late Wes Craven was attached to it, but, of course, that didn't happen, either, and the idea has since been abandoned altogether. I'm starting out with this because, when I came upon the Blu-Ray of Stake Land at the 2025 ScareFest in Lexington, Kentucky, I got momentarily confused and thought it was Fangland due to the similar titles. Now, I very quickly realized that wasn't the case, mainly because I connected the dots when it came to the title, but still, the cover looked intriguing, as did the synopsis on the back, which described it as a post-apocalyptic vampire movie, akin to what's usually done with zombie movies. Also, while I don't really care about this one way or the other, the good reviews on the cover and the back, with one declaring it, "The American horror film of the year!", and the back saying it established its director, Jim Mickle, as a notable new voice in the genre, did grab my attention. And I'd already decided on the theme for this year's October Fest and was looking for some other movies to fill some spaces. It was also cheap, and I'm really happy about that because, while I certainly don't hate Stake Land, I strongly disagree with all those glowing reviews. The story is nothing new, as it's another movie set in a world where an ever-growing plague of monsters has almost completely wiped out mankind, with the focus being on a group of people trying to stay both alive and human, and there's also the familiar commentary about how humans are sometimes the real monsters. It's like if you took 28 Days Later and Zombieland, removed the humor from the latter, replaced the zombies/infected with vampires, and sprinkled in a little bit of I Am Legend for good measure. 

Now, like I've said before, I don't care if something isn't completely original, as long as it's pulled off well; in this case, it's just so-so. The major problem is that, while the characters are fine and you can get a little attached to them, the approach the filmmakers decided to take in telling this story, with very sparse dialogue and mostly silent or narrated montages, leads to their still not being developed enough to where you can really care. It's also much slower-paced than you'd expect, with only a handful of really big action moments, and it goes for such a downbeat, nihilistic tone, with very little humor or levity, that it can be a somewhat miserable viewing experience. And, while it doesn't come up often, and it's probably not fair to hold this against it, its low budget and independent roots are sometimes very obvious. All that said, it's certainly competently-made for the most part, with some inspired moments of direction, nice location work, the look and portrayal of the vampires isn't too shabby, there's plenty of blood and guts for gorehounds, and the music score is pretty good. But, overall, it just left me kind of cold and made me wish I was instead watching either those movies it reminds me of or, if I want a movie where vampires have taken over the world, something like Daybreakers.

A plague that turns people into ferocious, bloodthirsty vampires, dubbed "vamps," has swept the globe, and the United States is in complete shambles. The countryside is littered with the bodies of both the victims and the vamps themselves, the American government has collapsed, the cities are nothing but giant tombs, survivors have come together in safe havens called "lockdowns" which dot the land, and fanatical religious cults have popped up in the pandemic's wake. Among those still alive and human are a teenage boy named Martin and his mentor/father figure, a man known only as Mister, who's very adept at killing vamps. Having saved Martin when his family was slaughtered, the two of them travel across the country, heading north, towards Canada, and a supposedly secure, vamp-free place called "New Eden." They get by any way they can, killing what vamps they come across, and they pick up some other survivors along the way: a nun known only as "Sister," a pregnant young woman named Belle, and a former Marine named Willie, who tells them that the Middle East is now completely overrun and that the U.S. fell partly because of the Brotherhood, a militia of religious fanatics who view the plague as God's will. Having already once run afoul of them and their demented leader, Jebedia Loven, the survivors repeatedly learn that they're to be feared just as much as the vamps, if not more so. And the closer they get to New Eden, the more their will to live and faith in humanity are pushed to their breaking points.

Stake Land was the creation of Jim Mickle and Nick Damici, who'd met while working on a student thesis film at New York University in the early 2000's. At the time, the two of them, working respectively as director and screenwriter/actor, had made their first feature film together in 2006: Mulberry Street, released as part of After Dark Films' 8 Films to Die For festival in 2007. Stake Land initially started out as a web series, but producer Larry Fessenden, who founded the production companies Glass Eye Pix and ScareFlix, and who also produced Ti West's The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers, persuaded them to make it into a feature film instead. However, Glass Eye did produce a series of webisodes, three of which were directed by Fessenden, and four written by Damici, that told the main characters' backstories. While there would be a sequel in 2016, with Damici returning as both screenwriter and star, and Fessenden again producing, Mickle would only be involved in the capacity of an executive producer. Since Stake Land, he's gone on to direct, as well as edit, 2013's We Are What We Are, 2014's Cold in July, with Michael C. Hall, and 2019's In the Shadow of the Moon, with Boyd Holbrook and Hall. He and Damici also developed the television series, Hap and Leonard, with Mickle directing six episodes, and Mickle himself also developed and directed seven episodes of the Netflix series, Sweet Tooth.

As he'd done with Mulberry Street, Nick Damici both writes and stars in Stake Land as Mister, the mysterious, tough, grizzled survivalist and vampire hunter who along with young Martin, travels up north, heading to New Eden. During the movie's opening flashback, he literally appears out of nowhere, just in time to save Martin when a vamp attacks and kills his family. After they work together to kill the vamp, Martin's mortally wounded father begs Mister to keep his son safe, before Mister puts him out of his misery. He then takes the kid under his wing, teaching him the best way to kill vamps, as well as briefing him on the different kinds and what methods work best on each. Exactly why he saved Martin and keeps him around is never explained, but Martin himself figures that it might be because, since they're both technically orphans, it gives Mister something to hold onto. Regardless, he proves very capable in applying what he teaches, as he's quite a skilled fighter, adept at thinking on his feet, and even manages, at one point, to survive a night where he's stranded out in the wilderness, with no weapons. He also knows what places to avoid, namely the big cities and areas controlled by the Brotherhood, and how to set up makeshift warning systems and traps whenever they have to bed down for the night. More than anything else, though, Mister is very matter of fact, killing not only vamps, regardless of who they once were or how the others feel about it, but anybody he feels is a threat, such as some cultists attempting to rape Sister when they first come across her, and Jebedia Loven when the Brotherhood is specifically targeting him. Speaking of the others, he's really not interested in hearing their backstories or where they came from, telling Sister shortly after she joins them, "We don't do history. It doesn't do anybody any good." He also tries not to get too close to any of them. When, for instance, he has to carry Belle and she says, "My daddy used to carry me like this when I was little," Mister gruffly says, "I'm not your daddy." The same goes for anyone else they come across, including this woman who, in the first lockdown they stop at, apparently helped him get his rocks off. As they're leaving, Martin asks what her name was and Mister answers, "I didn't ask."

As Belle later says, Mister isn't the total hardass he appears to be. I especially like how he doesn't begrudge Martin for his more sympathetic nature, as you might expect him to. When Martin wants to take Belle with them, he allows it, even though having a pregnant woman with them later proves to be quite a hindrance. And like I said, he does carry Belle when she begins to find it hard to walk. You also see his hidden soft heart when they stop at Strivington, another lockdown, near the end of the second act.

That night, the inhabitants are having a hootenanny-like celebration, and when this little girl runs up to Mister, wanting to dance, he picks her up in his arms and dances with her. Unfortunately, that girl is killed when the Brotherhood drops some vamps into their midst using helicopters, part of their plan in realizing "God's will." During the climax, when Belle is captured and Martin rushes in to save her, despite Mister warning him that it's an obvious trap, he reluctantly follows after him. They're ultimately unable to save Belle, and when Martin is forced to kill

her to keep her from becoming a vampire, Mister does what he can to comfort him. And at the end of the movie, when they come upon a restaurant run by a solitary but very capable young woman named Peggy, Mister, seeing the connection that Martin quickly forms with her, moves on without him, obviously feeling he'd be better off with her. He's good enough to leave them the pickup truck so they can make it to New Eden themselves.

Martin (Connor Paolo), as you might expect, is a more open and emotional character than Mister, despite the experiences he's had since Mister saved his life. He's the sole survivor of his family, who were attacked and slaughtered by a vamp early in the outbreak. They were preparing to make a run for it in their car, when the family dog, Cooper, ran out into the rainy night. Martin chased after him, when a vamp attacked his mother, father, and infant sibling in the garage. He went to go help them, when Mister shows up, pinned him to the ground, and told him there was nothing he could do to save them, and their only concern was to kill the vamp. Together, they managed to pull it off, as Martin blasted the vamp with a shotgun and then drove the stake through his heart with a hammer. As they travel together, Martin learns the best ways to kill different types of vamps, how to fight, and how to defend himself when it's time to bed down for the night. Like Mister, he's looking forward to reaching New Eden and escaping the madness, and tries to keep up his hope for it, despite hearing rumors that it's not the paradise they think it is, and that there are cannibals as well as vamps to watch out for along the way. He also serves as the movie's narrator, telling us about the world itself, how it came to be, and the experience they had and the emotions he felt during their journey.

Again, while Martin has had to grow into a man a lot faster than normal, and has gotten to the point where, as he admits, he doesn't feel safe around many other people, he still has a softer heart and more humanity than the hardened Mister. When they're captured by the Brotherhood and he gets the chance to escape, he's reluctant to do so without Sister, given what she's been through and knowing Jebedia's intentions for her. She gives him silent permission to do so, but it's a decision you can tell is gnawing at him, both at the

time and later. After they've first seen Belle at a lockdown roadhouse, Martin is intent on bringing her with them, despite how much of a burden a pregnant woman would be. And when they find a house inhabited by a "scamp," or a young vampire, Martin hesitates to kill her, which endangers both himself and everyone else. As expected, his compassion leads to a lot of pain and anguish, like when he witnesses the destruction of Strivington and many of its citizens firsthand. And after they're forced to make their way

through the woods on foot, both Sister, whom he was reunited with at Strivington, and Willie are killed in fairly rapid succession. He also starts to worry about Belle, as her pregnancy causes issues for them, and he asks Mister what they're going to do when the baby comes up. That leads to the biggest tragedy he experiences, when Belle is abducted by Jebedia Loven, himself now a vampire. Though Martin and Mister manage to kill him, they're unable to save Belle, and Martin has to kill her as well to prevent her from becoming a vampire herself, which absolutely

devastates him. Fortunately, he and Mister, as they continue heading north, come upon the restaurant run by Peggy. She and Martin quickly bond, and he helps her kill a persistent vamp that night. Thus, Mister leaves him there with her, as well as the pickup truck they'd taken, which they use to head on to New Eden together.

I didn't know that Danielle Harris was in this until she made her first appearance, a little under halfway in (she also wrote and directed one of those promotional webisodes). Like everyone else, her character of Belle doesn't really have that much to her, but it's always nice to see her in something. Mister and Martin meet her at a roadhouse at a lockdown after they've had their first tangle with the Brotherhood. She sings there to entertain the customers, and later, after the bar has all but closed down for the night, Martin sees that she's pregnant. When they leave the next day, she's standing on the side of the road, thumbing for a ride, and Martin is the one who gets Mister to pick her up. Like Sister and Willie, she's really little more than just another member of the growing party of travelers, wanting to get to New Eden before the baby's born, and doesn't have that many standout moments. Her and Martin do become kind of close, and he obviously cares about her, but there's never any hint of it possibly blossoming into a full on romance. And, as Mister worries about, she starts to become a burden due to her pregnancy, as she's slowing them down. She does have a few poignant moments, such as when, while they're taking shelter in a broken down school bus, she feels her baby kick and gets Martin and Willie to feel it, and when Mister has to carry her. The circumstances of her death are also both horrific and sad, as she's abducted by the vampiric Jebedia Loven after he lures Mister and Martin away from their camp, and the next day, they hear her agonized screams coming from inside an old silo. Inside, they find her tied to the wall and badly bleeding, having suffered a bite to the neck. Though Martin and Mister manage to kill Jebedia, there's no hope for Belle, and all Martin can do is put her out of her misery to prevent her from becoming a vampire, too.

Sister (Kelly McGillis), Martin and Mister's first tag-along, is saved by them from a pair of Brotherhood members who attempt to rape her. Mister kills both of them, then runs to catch Sister, who's so hysterical and traumatized that she initially tries to fight him off. Once she's a part of the group, her Christian faith puts her at odds with Mister's matter-of-fact way of looking at things. She's horrified when, after they take shelter in a house, a vamp that used to be someone from her convent shows up and Mister brutally kills her. She comes out onto the porch and yells at Mister to stop, right before he finishes the vamp off. Once she's dead, Sister shuts her eyes, then storms back into the house. The next day, after Agatha has been buried in a grave dug by Mister, Sister puts some flowers atop it. While talking to him, she tells him that she doesn't agree with how he killed her would-be rapists, saying, "It's not ours to judge." Mister retorts, "Then don't. Next lockdown, we drop you off. Go save some souls." She's also concerned about Martin and his having to live like this. The two of them seem to become fairly close, which is why, when they're abducted by the Brotherhood, and they leave Mister out in the night to be killed by vamps, Sister tries to comfort Martin, who's devastated over having seemingly lost him. Moreover, when he's sent down to the creek to get some water, giving him the chance to escape, Martin is reluctant to leave Sister. But, before he goes, she gives him the crucifix she wears around her neck, and though Jebedia warns him that, if he does run, he won't last long out there, Sister gives him a silent signal to escape. Before Martin heads down to the creek, he sees Jebedia forcing Sister into his tent, obviously intending to have his way with her right then and there.

Later, after Belle and Willie have joined the group, and they manage to get the drop on Jebedia and some of his men, he tells them that Sister managed to escape. They later meet back up with her at Strivington, and her and Martin have a very joyous reunion. It's short-lived, though, as the Brotherhood destroys the celebration the citizens are having and kills a bunch of people. The next day, Sister continues on with the group, but their car breaks down and they have to continue on foot. They sleep in an old junk 

yard, where they're attacked by a group of "berserkers," the oldest and strongest types of vamps. When they flee the yard, into a nearby cornfield, Sister opts to stay behind and draw the vamps' attention so the others can escape. She inevitably gets swarmed and shoots herself before she can be bitten and turned into one herself, asking God for forgiveness before she does.

They come across Willie (Sean Nelson) when they save him from a vamp who was waiting for him outside the porta-potty he's hiding in. Once they kill him, Willie falls out of the potty, tied up and with his hands bound. Not surprisingly, this turns out to be the work of the Brotherhood, as they left him there as bait for the vamps. After helping him, he tells them that he was a Marine and got back from the Middle East when the pandemic began. He also tells them that the Middle East is completely overrun and that the President is dead, not that it matters, as the U.S. government doesn't exist anymore. Most significantly, he tells them that the Brotherhood is partly responsible for it, as they would aid the vamps in spreading beyond blockades and into big cities; he blames them specifically for why Washington fell. When the group makes it to Strivington, Willie becomes close with an older woman he meets at the celebration and dances with her. Unfortunately, she's mortally wounded in the Brotherhood attack and dies after she takes shelter with the rest of them. While Willie lasts longer than Sister, he's killed shortly after they take refuge in the abandoned school bus. He goes out in the middle of the night to relieve himself, but the next day, Mister finds that he's missing. The three of them go out to look for him, and find his brutalized body hung up in a tree. That, as well as the fact that he was taken from their camp by something that managed to get around their traps, clues Mister in that they're now dealing with a vamp that's able to think.

Said vamp turns out to be Jebedia Loven (Michael Cerveris), who was already monstrous as the leader of the Brotherhood. He's introduced when Mister, Martin, and Sister are captured and brought to their camp, and while the latter two are bound and gagged, he has Mister strung up into the air on a pulley. Jebedia tells Mister that he killed two of his followers "in cold blood," one of which was his sixteen-year old son. He then angrily smacks him in the face with a pamphlet, adding, "He cried for his mother for three hours before he died. God rest his soul." After sizing Martin up, he declares that they're going to, "Bring you to God and the right way!", then looks at Sister and says she's "good stock" that can "still serve." He further admonishes Mister for killing vamps, claiming that God is resurrecting them to enact his will. When Mister's response to this is to literally spit in Jebedia's face and exclaim, "Fuck you, and fuck your God!", he calmly wipes the spit off and tells him, "Well, you can tell him that yourself. You're about to meet him." They then drive Mister out into the countryside, into what he calls "The Valley of Them," and leave him stranded there, surrounded by vamps, his hands still tied together. The only thing he's left with to protect himself is a torch, as the vamps are repelled by the light. The next day, Jebedia orders Martin to go down to the creek and get some water, while he begins forcing Sister to fulfill her "duties." He tells Martin, "You can run if you want to. Ain't nothin' out there but sundown and them. You won't get far." Well, not only does Martin manage to escape and survive, but he, Mister, Belle, and Willie later commandeer one of the cult's vehicles and take Jebedia hostage. Mister then asks where Sister is and Jebedia answers, in a very sneering manner, "Bitch run off. We was just tryin' to 'protect' her." In retaliation, Mister decides to leave Jebedia himself out there as vamp bait: he ties him to a tree trunk, gags him, puts barbwire around his neck, and then rips the back of his shirt off and cuts into his flesh, knowing the scent of blood will attract vamps.

But during the third act, not only does Jebedia reappear as a vampire himself but, rather than becoming a mindless, ravenous monster, maintains his human intelligence. Speaking in a lower, more inhuman voice, he declares that he's abducted and bitten Belle out of revenge, and plans to kill Martin as well. In his fight with Mister, he claims that God answered his prayers and he willingly allowed the vamps to take him, his personal reasoning behind his becoming an intelligent vampire. However, despite all his boasting about being powerful and whatnot, he's killed very easily, though the details are hard to make out.

Following the climax and Belle's tragic death, Mister and Martin move on, eventually meeting Peggy (Bonnie Dennison) at her mother's old restaurant. They get a sense of her marksmanship when they first arrive, as they find the charred corpses of some vamps, with arrows sticking out of them, on the roof outside of the restaurant. She then appears on the roof, a crossbow trained on the two of them, but when she learns they're not a threat, she gives them some food. She also tells them about her mother, whom she buried out back following her death, and adds that she's so efficient with her crossbow because she's had a lot of practice. She immediately connects with Martin, saying she hasn't seen a boy around her age in a long time. That night, when a vamp wanders into the lot outside, Peggy proves how great she is with her bow, able to shoot it from the window. Then, a vamp she calls Walter, who was someone she went to high school with and was "such an asshole," shows up. She says she hasn't been able to get a clear shot at him, and is shocked when Martin casually goes outside to take care of him. That turns to amazement when he easily manages to kill Walter, and the two of them end up platonically sleeping together that night. The next day, when they find that Mister is gone but left the pickup behind, Martin and Peggy drive on to New Eden themselves.

Producer Larry Fessenden appears briefly as the bartender at the roadhouse where Mister and Martin meet Belle. He tells them where the next lockdown is, warning them that it's in Brotherhood territory, and when Mister mentions that they've had some trouble with "holy rollers," he says, "Yeah, well, we don't tolerate religion or politics in here." Impressed by the vampire fangs he uses to pay for their drinks, the bartender says, "Been talk there was a hunter about. Thought you was long dead by now," and Mister

retorts, "Not yet." And besides Danielle Harris, there's another Halloween alumnus here: Marianne Hagan, who starred as Kara Strode in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. She appears briefly early on, as a physician at the first lockdown that Mister and Martin stop at. She examines Martin, telling Mister the nourishment he needs, and also says he'd be better off staying there. Mister pays her in a bottle of medicine, and she says, "I could use all of them," to which he just replies, "Good," then walks out the door.

When you saw the first few screenshots, I'm sure you knew this was going to come up when I got to talking about the technical aspects and, yeah, I hate to sound like a program record, but I have to be honest: it's that washed out, color-graded look that you know I hate. Now, I actually really like the scenes that take place late in the afternoon or at dusk on a sunny day, as they look pretty nice, but it's those mostly gray/silver daytime exteriors, often when it's overcast, that I can't stand. I know they're trying to set a mood but, with few exceptions, I don't find that look appealing or 

even atmospheric, and I'm not too big on the deep brown look of many of interiors or the exteriors set around a fire at night, either. However, I don't mind the pale-blue color given to scenes, namely those in the woods in the third act, where it's meant to be cold. As you've also seen, the movie tends to be pretty dim, especially during nighttime interiors and exteriors, and unfortunately, the fight and action scenes are sometimes so rapidly edited (incidentally, Jim Mickle was also the editor) and the camerawork is so shaky 

that you can't quite tell what's going on (I'm still not sure how exactly they kill Jebedia). But, other than that, the cinematography by Ryan Samul is fairly well done, namely in how he and Mickle shoot the landscapes and locations, not only exploiting their natural beauty but also letting you see the details that emphasize how this is a desolate, post-apocalyptic world. Direction-wise, Mickle doesn't get all that showy, although there are instances of slight slow-motion, as well as montages with little to no dialogue, some of which serve their purpose (like when you see Mister training Martin), while others contribute to my biggest problem with the movie, as I'll go into later. 

Mickle's most impressive bit of direction is the way he shoots the sequence where the celebration in Strivington is destroyed when the Brotherhood drops vamps down from helicopters and they start wreaking havoc. Much of this sequence is accomplished in one take that lasts over two full minutes, starting on a shot of a guy cranking up a generator, then following the characters as they all gradually join in the festivities, with Martin and Belle going off together, Willie being approached by that older woman and dancing with her, and Mister picking up the little girl and dancing

with her as well. It then reveals that Sister is there, as Martin sees her, and the two of them promptly embrace. It goes from normal speed to slow-motion as he runs into her arms, and everything seems nice and peaceful, when the sound of a helicopter comes in. All hell then breaks loose when several vamps are dropped down in the midst of the party and they begin attacking and slaughtering everyone they see. Some of the militia volunteers guarding Strivington try to fight them, while our main group runs amid the chaos 

and takes shelter. From what I've read, that approach was born out of necessity, as the scene had to be shot within a single day, and only a few bits of it were edited, as some of the extras turned out to not be the best actors.

Despite the meager budget of just $625,000, the filmmakers managed to use the various shooting locations to make Stake Land feel like it was done on a much bigger scale. It was shot in Pennsylvania, New York, and within the Catskills Mountains, and they managed to make use of a number of different settings, opening up on a stretch of land with a road running through some big, empty fields, with the only people on the road being Mister and Martin. Following the flashback, where we see a bit of the farm that Martin grew up on (or, rather, the barn), we

get a montage of abandoned urban areas, like the underside of an overpass, where Mister and Martin abandon their car and kill a vamp they had locked in the trunk; empty towns and highways they pass through; an abandoned plant they momentarily stop at; and the first lockdown, the entrance to which is barricaded by a train car, and which, as we see and as Martin narrates, is full of people trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy in their lives. Much of the story actually takes place in the wilderness areas

that now make up much of America, like the wooded spot where they first encounter the Brotherhood, the mountainous place near the Adirondacks where they head after they meet Willie and deal with Jebedia, and the very cold, wooded area where much of the third act is set. All of these places come off as very picturesque, despite the state of things. During the latter, the group also seeks shelter in an auto junkyard, only for them to get attacked by a group of

berserkers; then, they make a temporary home out of an abandoned school bus they find in the middle of the woods; and finally, the climactic confrontation with Jebedia takes place in an old silo where he's taken Belle and intends to drain her blood.

Over the course of the story, the characters take shelter in various abandoned buildings, like the old motel that they stay in after picking up Sister and the large house after they've picked up Belle. While beggars can't be choosers, they tend to look really creepy on the outside, and, in the case of the latter, the group finds evidence of a slaughter that happened there earlier. And sometimes, these places prove to not be as empty as they initially seem, like when Martin discovers a scamp int eh house's attic. The lockdowns where they tend to stop give off a bit of a 

western vibe, in how the inhabitants are sometimes suspicious of newcomers as they roll into town, and especially in regards to the bars and roadhouses they often have. We see a couple of smaller lockdowns during the first half, but Strivington, which is under the protection of a militia of volunteers and can only be entered through a checkpoint where weapons are confiscated, is the largest and most bustling. Though it's still seen better days, as there are a lot of people sitting out on the littered sidewalk, with many trying 

to sell stuff, in a makeshift marketplace, it's clearly thriving as best as it can, until the Brotherhood all but destroys it. And finally, at the end of the movie is Peggy's restaurant/home, which is a lot better-looking on the inside, despite what the rundown exterior would make you think. She also has it nicely set up and is more than capable of defending it with her crossbow, picking off vamps when they enter the lot through her window and doing the same to those that show up on the road out in front.

One of the biggest compliments I can give Stake Land is its world-building, which it gets into virtually from the beginning. We immediately get a sense of how this plague of vampirism has wiped out not just the United States but the world as a whole; in addition to the decimated towns and virtually empty landscapes, we see old newspaper clippings about the death toll, missing persons fliers, and numerous bodies, both people and vamps, either littering the ground in some spots or hanging from up high. In his narration, Martin tells us about how the big cities

were the first to fall: "As people flocked together for safety, the plague marched through their locked gates and they became death traps." We also learn the fate of the American government, with the President and higher-ups running for it, and when Willie joins the group, he says that the Middle East is completely gone, and that the Marines and other armed forces were sent in to try to stem the spread of the disease, but were forced to give up and tried to get home to their families before it was too late. Now, instead of actual towns and cities, you have the isolated pockets 

of people known as lockdowns, which Martin describes as, "Towns locked down behind fences and guns, holding the night away." There's also the mention of New Eden up north, as well as how rumors are circulating that it's not as safe as its reputation suggests. Also, since money no longer means anything, people instead trade for what they need, with some of the more valuable "currencies" including stuff like medicine, weed, and especially vampire fangs, which Mister often rips out of the 

mouths of those he's slain, as well as those he finds already dead. Speaking of which, I like the little touch of their being referred to as "vamps," kind of like how, in George Romero's Land of the Dead, the zombies are referred to as "stenches." It's also acknowledged that there are different types of vamps and they're each given their own moniker, as I'll get into. And while it never gets overly graphic or nasty, it is clear how savage this world is, with all of the bodies we see, both outside and in homes; the onscreen and implied deaths of kids (not just the little girl in Strivington but, also, Martin's baby sibling at the start), and the various victims and atrocities of the Brotherhood.

Though the vamps are the main threat, just as, if not more, dangerous are the fanatical religious cults that have popped up due to the idea that it's the end of times and the Second Coming is at hand. The deadliest is the Brotherhood, who, it turns out, are also partly responsible for the plague getting so out of control, as they actually helped the vamps spread beyond blockades, as they believe that they're doing God's good work. Though their introductory scene is actually when Martin and Mister come upon two of them chasing after and attempting to rape Sister, it's 

when they capture the group that we see just how frightening they are. There's already a hint of their presence when the trio drives through this one rural area,and hear a transmission over the radio that talks about refuge for "the righteous and the pure" in Lafayette Valley," adding, "Together, we shall lead the world back to the light and the right, whom the American God loves." (There was already a hint of this radical political bent on their part during the opening, with a sign that read, "GOD BLESS RIGHT AMERICA.") They also see a woman's body hanging 

from a tree, and come upon a campground that, at first glance, seems like the site of a Jonestown-like mass suicide. The group enters a tent full of people, seemingly dead from drinking poisoned punch, with the only survivor a crying baby... only for the sound to turn out to be a recording, and all of the "dead" cultists pop up and point guns at them. The group is captured and brought to the cult's actual camp, where Mister is left out in the wild to be killed by vamps, Martin is intended to be forcefully inducted, and 

Sister made into a sex slave. It's also scary how well-equipped these cultists are, as they have access not only to firearms but also a number of vehicles, even aircraft, which they use to drop vamps behind barricades. Their very look is unsettling, as many of them are bald, and they wear shrouds made out of burlap sacks and the like, with crosses attached to their hoods, between the eye-holes. There's also this twisted cross-like symbol that the group has adopted, and which Jebedia has tattooed on the back of his 

head. Even the ambience around them is unsettling, with burning fires and lit candles to be found in their campsites. And their reach extends far, as when the group is first brought before Jebedia, he reveals that they know perfectly well who Mister is. After he and Martin escape, they hear on the radio that Mister has become the Brotherhood's number one target, and they put out his and Martin's description, urging other cultists to spot and report them. The group even sees literal signs that they're searching for Mister as the continue their journey, and any poor schmuck who comes across them is forced out of their vehicle and executed.

Getting to the vamps themselves, they, as I've said, serve the same function that zombies often do: a rapidly spreading plague that turns people into ravenous, bloodthirsty monsters. Portrayal-wise, they're most akin to the infected in 28 Days Later and the zombies in the remake of Dawn in the Dead, as they're very fast and ferocious. The major difference is how they tend to move and behave in a much more animalistic manner, often crouching or getting down on all fours, and able to smell blood from a great distance. They emit animal-like roars, as well as 

shrieks when they're injured and they also have moments where you can see a bit of intelligence within them, unlike the mostly mindless zombies. And, save for how feral they are, they're also like the creatures in both the novel I Am Legend and its various film adaptations, in that they've wiped out much of the human population and the survivors now have to continuously arm and defend themselves when the sun goes down. Either way, some of the traditional vampire rules do apply to them: getting 

bitten ensures that you eventually become one (that said, these vampires are more likely to mortally wound you with their violent biting and ripping), guns don't do any real damage, and most of them can be stopped either by the sun or being staked through the heart. However, it also seems like the spine is the key to really destroying them because, as Mister says, "Vamps function from the reptile brain," (again, not unlike the living dead). I don't get the connection between staking them in the heart and destroying their

spines but, whatever. Also, while they don't turn into bats or seem to be repelled by crosses, they're apparently not fond of garlic, as Mister is seen soaking a stake in garlic oil early on, and when asked if it works, he answers, "It don't hurt." And they're not fond of cold, as the group doesn't run into them far up into the mountains, save for Jebedia.

There different types of vamps include a group called "scamps," who were originally children or young adults before they turned. While still dangerous, they're not as immediately ferocious as some of the other vamps. When Martin finds one up in the abandoned house's attic, while she does initially grab at him, she then calmly walks downstairs, crouches down in front of him and Belle, and comes off as more curious than vicious, even gently reaching for Martin's hand. Once Mister grabs her from behind and pins her down to the table, she, naturally,

becomes as fierce as the others. On the opposite end of the spectrum, berserkers are the oldest types of vamps, and are also both the meanest and the toughest. Because their breastplate is too hard to pierce, they can only be killed by severing the spine at the base of the skull. And finally, during the climax, Jebedia somehow manages to become a thinking vamp. Whether it's due to some kind of mutation or because he gave himself to the vamps willingly, it's never explained, but, regardless, he proves to be

especially dangerous due to his diabolical mind. He not only manages to ambush and kill Willie by getting around the traps they set up around the school bus, but he also strings his body up in a tree, and later distracts Martin and Mister so he can abduct Belle, whom he proceeds to bite and drain of blood in the abandoned silo.

The makeup design for the vamps varies one to the other, with some, like that scamp, seeming virtually human, while the majority of them are quite monstrous-looking in their facial features, inhuman eyes, and long fangs, often with lots of blood around their mouths. What's more, some of them seem to give off the sense that they've been undead for so long that they're starting to decay or, at the very least, are starving due to the lack of any prey in the area, as they seem very emaciated. The Santa Claus vamp they run into before they meet Willie is so weak and

out of it that he doesn't even try to attack before Martin shoots him in the chest with an arrow! My personal favorite vamp is the one in the opening that wipes out Martin's family, as he looks monstrous and ferocious, and proves to be so in his actions (again, he's seen literally eating Martin's baby sibling!). A close second would probably be that female scamp, just for how different she both looks and acts from the others, and also because her introductory scene, where she looks like she's sleeping, only for her to 

suddenly open her eyes and tilt her head at Martin in an inhuman manner, is rather creepy. And finally, I like Sister Agatha at the motel, as she proves to be really tough and strong, able to throw Mister around and fight with her hand snagged in a bear trap, and is so heavyset that Mister finds it hard to get at her spine.

As par for the course with modern day vampire movies, there is a lot of gore to be had here, for sure. You have necks being bitten into and ripped open, vamps getting stabbed in the chest, a baby getting chewed on, big, bloody gunshot wounds, blood spewing out of mouths, and lots of dead bodies, both human and vamp, littering the streets, among other nasty sights, and it's all achieved through well done makeup effects. There is, however, a fair amount of digital work as well, often used to create environmental effects, like rain and fire, to create the 

kind of sky they wanted in certain shots, and augment some sequences, like when the vamps are dropped down in the midst of Strivington. Even the movie's very title screen has the look and feel of what you would see in something like a Sci-Fi Channel original (and like with the editing, Jim Mickle was also the VFX supervisor). Fortunately, it's not used too egregiously, although there's a really bad CGI effect used in a quick shot of a vamp getting hit by a car. These effects are really the one thing about the movie that screams "low budget" and "independent." That, and a bunch of stock sound effects you tend to hear throughout, including the Wilhelm scream during the Strivington attack.

My biggest issues with Stake Land are both the characters and, more significantly, how they're written. It seems like, in writing the screenplay, Jim Mickle and Nick Damici attempted to see if they could pull this story off with very little dialogue and, instead, letting the characters' archetypes, actions, and the actors' performances do most of the heavy-lifting. I can appreciate the effort and the decision not to spoon-feed everything to the audience, but it doesn't really work, as you don't really get to know the characters aside from their basic roles in the story: 

Mister is the grizzled, badass veteran who doesn't have much to say, Martin is his younger and more humanistic assistant/protege, Belle is pregnant out of wedlock, Sister is a nun whose faith puts her in conflict with both Mister and the ways of the Brotherhood, and Willie is a fairly tough and capable former Marine. Granted, those webisodes, which are available on the Blu-Ray, do provide backstories to the characters, but I've always felt that you shouldn't have to do what amounts to homework to have a 

richer experience with a film or TV show; rather, alternate media like that should just be a fun little addition but not entirely necessary. Now, did I absolutely need for Stake Land itself to show me the nightmare Martin had before his parents' death in the opening, or that Mister got the skull pendant he wears from his father after he died, or that the father of Belle's child was killed by the vamps after they got into a car crash? No. But I do need more than just the bare minimum to emotionally connect with some

people I'm going to be spending 98 minutes with. Ironically, the characters who feel the most developed are Jebedia Loven and Peggy. We don't go into any details about Jebedia's past, but we see and hear enough to know what he believes and that he's so fanatical that nothing will change his mind. And even though Peggy is only in the movie's last six or so minutes, what she tells Mister and Martin about her mother and how capable she is with a crossbow feels like more than enough to understand her. 

It's amazing how little dialogue there is here. There are long stretches where the characters don't say much of anything, save for just a tiny hint of what they're feeling or thinking, or information regarding the world they're living in, and there are also stretches where the only sound is either the music score or Martin's narration. His narration comes in continually from the beginning and, at first, it acts as a useful shorthand in establishing what's happened to the world, how the remaining humans survive, the emergence of all the cults, where he and Mister are

heading, and hinting at how his life was utterly upended by the vamps, before we see it play out in the opening flashback. But, as the movie goes on, his narration mostly serves to tell us something that's either obvious or would be more effective if we were to see and experience it firsthand. For instance, during a montage after Mister tells Sister that they're going to drop her off at the next lockdown, Martin narrates, "But we never dropped her off. Where was she gonna go?", even though we can plainly see that they've 

kept her around. When Martin escapes the Brotherhood camp, he narrates, "Mister taught me how to read the stars. I could make my way back to the car, get the weapons, find them robe-wearin' crazies, and send them back to that God they kept talkin' about... I had to keep movin', had to make the car before night came. Mister was gone, and out here alone, I didn't stand a chance." Again, we could surmise all of that from just watching him run through the woods. But the most egregious example 

is when, at the start of the third act, the car breaks down and the group has to continue on foot, surviving in the woods while still making their way north. We get a montage of this playing out, but we don't get to actually experience it, as Martin just tells us how they felt: "One week in the woods, and we were becoming different people. Small talk stopped. We worked as a pack, each to his task. It was cold here in the high passes, but we hadn't seen any vamps. The forest cast a kind of magic over us. Away from people... I stopped thinkin' about the past, and about my family. I'd found a new one."

It doesn't help that some of Martin's narration is really corny and overwritten, like when he says, "Cults spread like wildfire across the southern states. Waitin' for the  Messiah, but... he never came. Death came in its stead. And it came with teeth," "In desperate times, false gods abound. People put their faith in the loudest preacher and hope they're right. But sometimes they're wrong. Dead wrong," or, "Like Mister says, 'Live free or die tryin'.' Fuck the cannibals." (I was half expecting him to say, "Live free or die hard.") And as for Connor Paolo's delivery

of this narration, let's just say that he's no Morgan Freeman, as it's always monotone and emotionless. Similarly, the performances of the main cast either aren't strong enough to carry the movie in and of themselves, or they're just not given enough to do. Nick Damici is fine as Mister, but he's not exactly charismatic as someone like Kurt Russell, and neither is Paolo. Danielle Harris is certainly talented but she has little to do other than waddle around pregnant, and Sean Nelson does prove to have some charisma, 

but it's very spotty. To me, Kelly McGillis is the one member of the main cast who's able to effectively work with what she's given, getting across Sister's panic and trauma over nearly being raped, her horror at how savagely Mister kills both the rapists and the vampiric Sister Agatha, and her compassion and closeness with Martin.

It is interesting just how much in common this movie has with Zombieland: it's set in an America that's fallen due to a monstrous, possibly supernatural plague; the opening shows the state the country is currently in and how it started; it's a road movie, initially centering on two guys, a young, inexperienced one, who also acts as narrator, and an older, more capable one, but then encompasses other characters they meet along the way; and they're on their way to a supposed safe haven. Also, like the main characters in Zombieland, a couple of the

characters don't have actual names, and the others only go by their first names. The only major difference, aside from this not being a comedy, is that it's vampires rather than zombies but even then, they function the way zombies typically do in these kinds of movies. And, although Zombieland would get more into this in the sequel, there are also various types of vampires that need to be killed in different ways. In fact, since that film went into production around the same time as Stake Land and was released a year 

earlier, there was some initial concern among the filmmakers, but they decided not to worry, given how vastly different Stake Land is, mainly in terms of tone. But then, that's something else that hurts it, in my opinion. I know they were not intending to make the type of movie that Zombieland is, but the very dour tone, when combined with the thin characterizations and desaturated visual style, add even more to this not being the most enjoyable viewing experience. Even 28 Days Later, a very dark 

movie itself, still knew to have some levity and humor now and then. Here, save for maybe a moment where Mister and Martin hide in their car's trunk from a vamp, and when asked how many there are, the latter answers, "One, but she's really pissed off," and a few moments that are funny mostly because of how matter-of-fact the characters' reactions are, there's very little personality here.

Now, none of that is to suggest that the characters and the story are never effective. Like I said, you can see the connection between Martin and Sister, enough to where you understand why it's hard for him to flee the Brotherhood without her, and it's also upsetting to think about how, after she was nearly raped before, she's now going to be sexually abused by Jebedia. Thus, her and Martin's reunion at Strivington is a nice one, and her death shortly afterward, which is actually a sacrifice, has an impact. In addition, Belle's death is definitely affecting, not only because of how horrific

and drawn out it is, but also because it means the death of her unborn baby, and that it's Martin who has to perform the mercy kill on her, which leaves him devastated. Other effective moments are Belle's introduction at the roadhouse, Martin hesitating to kill the scamp, and Mister dancing with that little girl, whom you later learn was killed during the Brotherhood's vamp attack, along with the older woman whom Willie got close. In fact, that latter sequence, in and of itself, works in showing how, in

the blink of an eye, these people can go from living a secure life to being nearly wiped out. But for me, the most human, relatable moment is when, while they're staying in the school bus, Belle says she can feel her baby kicking, and lets both Martin and Willie feel it. They both marvel at it, with Willie remarking, "That kid's got a strong kick!", and Belle, who's so happy, says, "She's like, 'Let me out! I want to meet everybody.'" Had there been more moments like that, this movie would've been so much easier to get emotionally invested in.

For a movie with this kind of concept and story, it goes at a slower pace than you might think. I wouldn't describe it as a snail's pace, per se, but if you were expecting a high-energy, mile-a-minute flick with a lot of action, you're going to be disappointed. Much of the story is focused on establishing the setting and atmosphere, showing the devastated countryside, empty towns, abandoned buildings and vehicles, and the bodies of both vamps and humans. There are some action and fight scenes, where the characters run into and have to fight off either vamps or the

Brotherhood, to be sure, and a fair number of them, as you'll see, but they're spread far apart, tend not to last very long, and, as the filmmakers intended, never become too elaborate or stylized. In fact, it doesn't even have a big climax, as the confrontation between the now vampiric Jebedia is very short, and after that, the movie goes on for a few minutes before ending with Mister leaving, and Martin and Peggy heading on to New Eden by themselves. I wouldn't care about this so much if the writing and characters were more effective, but since they're lacking, it can make some parts a slog to sit through. 

The first major scene is at the beginning, during the flashback to the slaughter of Martin's family. As it pours rain and thunders outside, his parents are loading up a car, whose engine his dad is trying to fix. Just as they're debating about whether or not they should leave, the family dog, Cooper, runs outside, into the storm, and Martin chases after him. He doesn't go far, as he wanders about the yard, yelling for Cooper, and scanning the edge of the woods with a flashlight (while he's out there, the rain disappears

and reappears between shots). Behind him, the door to the garage slowly closes, and he then hears his baby sibling crying, followed by the sound of his mother suddenly screaming. She's flung halfway through the door's window and screams for him to run, before being yanked back inside. Martin runs back towards it, when Mister comes out of nowhere and tackles him to the ground. He clamps his hand over Martin's mouth and tells him, "You wanna live boy, you listen to me. You scream, I'll break your 

neck. They're dead. There's nothin' to be done about it but kill that thing." He gives him a gun, asking, "Can you shoot?", then adds, "You shoot me, I'll fuckin' kill you!" He then gets Martin to his feet and they both walk to the garage door. Mister whips out a stake and they both head inside. The garage is now eerily quiet, save for the sound of the radio, and they then see the brutalized body of Martin's mother nearby, while his father is sitting on the floor, horribly maimed, covered in blood, and barely alive. They hear the baby cry, and look up to see the vamp sitting up in the rafters, 

feeding on it. He drops the baby's body, and in the short amount of time it takes for Mister to follow it with his flashlight, the vamp has vanished from the rafters. They look around for him, when he suddenly pops up in front of them. Mister promptly stabs him right through the base of his neck, but the vamp merely pulls it out. Mister then gives him a roundhouse kick, before grabbing a shovel and shoving the spade into his face. He tries to force it all the way through, but the vamp grabs the handle and yanks the shovel loose. Mister clocks him with it, 

knocking him partly into the car's half-open trunk, and then tries to kill him by repeatedly slamming the lid down on him. However, the vamp kicks Mister hard enough to send him flying through the air, though he skillfully manages to land on both his hands and feet.

The vamp scans his surroundings, then lets out a bizarre squeal and frantically shakes his head back and forth, having smelled Mister's bleeding nose. Suddenly, Martin comes in from behind Mister and blasts the vamp, stunning him long enough for Mister to pin him to the hood of the car. He holds him there while he pulls another stake out of a boot holster and jams it into the vamp's chest. Blood spews out of his mouth, as Mister yells for Martin to get a hammer. He does, but when he tries to hand it to Mister, he tells

him that he's going to have to drive the stake through, as he's having to hold the vamp down. It doesn't take much hesitation before Martin does so, promptly killing the vamp. Mister yanks the stake out, as Martin backs away, then looks at his horribly injured father and drops the hammer. Mister pushes him out of the way and pulls out a machete, as Martin's father manages to croak out, "Save him." Mister then puts him out his misery with a swing of the machete, stopping him from becoming a vampire as well. Following the flashback, Martin and Mister wake up

beneath an overpass, the latter saying they need to disembark. They climb out of the car, and Martin puts on some football padding and a helmet, while Mister hands him a spear. He tells him, "Welcome to Stake Land, kid," then unlocks the trunk, which houses a vamp (for some reason, the movie opens with them driving around while this thing is snarling and roaring inside the trunk). Martin stands nearby, waiting, and when the vamp pops out with a snarl, Martin charges at him with the spear. It then immediately cuts to the title.

The next major moment comes after they've visited and spent the night at the first lockdown. As they're driving, they come upon Sister, as she's being pursued by a pair of would-be Brotherhood rapists. They stop the car in front of them, and while Sister keeps running, the two cultists decide to stand there and face Mister. He doesn't hesitate at all. He gets out of the car, marches up to one of them, and punches him in the chest so hard that he not only drops but is coughing up blood. The other falls over himself at the

sight of this, and Mister, instead of chasing after him, grabs a weapon out of the car, which can best be described as a large shuriken, and throws at him. It hits him dead in the back as he tries to run and he falls to the ground, yelling in agony and futilely trying to reach around and pull it out. Behind him, Mister pulls out a knife and finishes the other cultist off by slitting his throat. He goes after Sister, who's so traumatized that she tries to crawl away, and when he grabs her and gets her to her feet, she initially smacks at him. Quickly, she calms down and he helps her to the car. 

That night, the three of them have taken refuge in an abandoned motel, with Martin and Mister having boarded up the windows and set up traps outside, using some of Martin's blood on a teddy-bear as a lure, and a line with clattering objects attached as an alarm. As it rains outside, Martin and Sister are sleeping, while Mister is standing watch. He hears something trigger the makeshift alarm and he wakes Martin up, telling him, "Time to go fishin'." They walk out of the bedroom and to the nearest window,

looking out to see a vamp crawling underneath the line. Mister then grabs a long string attached to the teddy bear and pulls it along the ground, as the vamp crawls after it. She follows it up the steps leading up to the motel's front porch, as Mister maneuvers the bear around to where it sits atop a waiting trap. When the vamp reaches for it again, he yanks it away and her hand gets caught in the trap. She lets out a pained scream that awakens Sister, and she tries pull away from the trap, which is chained to a nearby pipe.

Mister tells Martin to get their long spear, while Sister walks into the room, looks out the window, and recognizes the vamp as Sister Agatha. Mister and Martin go outside to kill her, with Martin getting behind her while wielding the spear. However, she manages to rip the chain loose and swings at Mister. He blocks it and then repeatedly whacks her in the back with a tire iron, only to find he can't get at the spine because of her fat. Martin stabs her in the back with the spear, but she quickly gets to her feet and whirls around to face him. She menacingly lurches

towards him, growling, when Mister grabs her from behind. However, she very easily flings him off and back onto the porch, then turns back around to Martin. She comes at him, and when she swipes at him, he lunges and stabs in the torso. She swipes at him again, but then falls back screaming, with the spear still sticking out of her. Martin takes out a stake, as Agatha yanks the spear out of her chest. However, Mister comes to and knocks her in the back of the head, sending her to the ground. He admonishes Martin for missing her heart with the spear, then

angrily kicks Agatha. Martin falls to the ground and sits there, as Mister drags Agatha up onto the porch. Sister, who's been watching the whole thing in utter horror, comes out the door and yells at him to stop. But Mister promptly finishes Agatha off with a stake to the heart, before he sits down on the porch, exhausted. Sister walks over and closes Agatha's eyes as she takes her final breaths, then walks back inside and closes the door with a slam.

Not long afterward is when they're captured by the Brotherhood and Jebedia Loven decides to feed Mister to the vamps. They drive out into the countryside, to a place Jebedia calls, "The Valley of Them," in an armored truck. When they stop, he kicks open the car's two rear doors and orders for Mister to be hauled outside. Martin tries to intervene, but another cultist restrains him. He bites their hand, but he's flung to the floor, then whacked in the back of the head with the butt of a rifle, knocking him

unconscious. Outside, Mister is dragged into the middle of the road, and a group of vamps quickly gather around. A torch that Jebedia holds is the only thing keeping them from attacking, and after he knocks Mister in the back of the head, he drops the torch at his feet. He tells him, "They say, 'Hell is cold,' hunter," and heads back to the armored car, mockingly advising for him not to let the torch go out. The car then drives off, leaving Mister at the mercy of the vamps, who stalk towards him. One suddenly charges at him from the side, but he quickly 

floors, then pins him to the ground. He grabs the torch, breaks it in half, and, using the unlit end as a makeshift stake, stabs the pinned vamp through the heart (I think he also rips his fangs out, but it's so dark and the action is so fast that I'm not sure what happens). He then uses the actual torch to fend off the other vamps, who continuously try to lunge at him. It then suddenly cuts to Martin, as he wakes up the next day, with Sister comforting him.

After Martin takes his opportunity to escape from the cult, he makes his way through the woods, avoiding the cultists, and attempts to find the spot where they parked their car the day before. He finds it after night has come, but then realizes the doors are locked from the inside. Knowing he's stuck out there, exposed to the vamps, he slumps down alongside the car, then looks down the road to his right and sees one sitting there on all fours, scanning the area. With only a branch to use as a weapon, he waits for the inevitable.

The vamp promptly sees and runs at him, screaming ferociously. He gets to his feet and stands in front of the trunk, pointing the tip of the branch at her. Just as she's almost on top of him, the trunk pops open behind him and Mister yanks him inside. He slams the trunk closed, as the vamp jumps atop it, flails around wildly, and howls in frustration, wondering where her prey went. Martin tells Mister that there's only the one vamp, and Mister tells him to keep her distracted, while he crawls up front. Martin yells

through the trunk, taunting the vamp, as Mister climbs up into the driver's seat. He puts the key in and tries to start the car, but the sound of the engine trying to turn over gets the vamp's attention. Fortunately, the engine then starts and Mister lurches the car forward, causing the vamp to tumble off the trunk. He then puts the car in reverse and drives over her, only to see her getting to her feet in front of him. Grumbling, "I hate fuckin' vampires," as Martin joins him up front, he turns the headlights on, while the vamp turns around to face them. He floors it and hits her full

force, but she grabbed onto the car and climbs up the side of the driver's side door. She screams and lunges at him through the window, as both he and Martin try to hold her back. Mister punches her in the face, while Martin climbs around behind the driver's seat and manages to stab the vamp right in the eye. Even then, she's still not done, and continues attacking. Mister sees a tree near the side of the road up ahead and drives towards it. The vamp slams right into it and is finally knocked off the car, while Mister and Martin drive off into the night.

After Martin and Mister go to the roadhouse and pick up Belle the next day, they break into a house they find that night. Initially, there doesn't seem to be anything alive in there, as they find one man dead on a couch, and another, who had a prosthetic leg, in a bathroom. Mister manages to get the generator down in the basement working, and after they remove the bodies, they, initially, spend a pretty peaceful night there. They have dinner, then Mister and Belle relax in the living room, while Martin looks around the 

rest of the house. After finding some adult playing cards on a dresser in one room, he heads up to the attic, which is in a major state of disarray. In the back of it, he finds a young woman sleeping on the bottom shelf in a closet. When he reaches and touches her, her eyes open, and it's immediately obvious that she's a vamp, as she flashes her fangs. She grabs at him and he runs back downstairs, telling Mister and Belle what's going on. Mister then hides up along the side of the doorway into the living room, as the scamp comes downstairs and enters the room, seeing Martin 

and Belle. Following the moment of curiosity she has towards Martin, Mister comes up behind her, grabs her, and slams her onto the table. As she struggles, he tells Martin to stake her, and when he hesitates, yells, "If I let her go, she'll eat your ass!" He grabs a stake, puts it over her heart, and Martin hammers it in, as the film transitions to a time-lapse shot of the moon passing through the sky.

The next day, the trio continues on, seeing literal signs that the Brotherhood is searching for Mister. From a ridge, they watch as the cult pulls over a car at a roadblock, forces the driver to get out, makes him get down on his knees just past the blockade, and shoots him. They see that Jebedia is among them, and then continue on after nightfall. That's when they come upon the Santa Claus vamp loitering around near a porta-potty, and they get his attention by first shining their headlights on him, then whistling at him.

When he turns to face them, Martin immediately downs him with an arrow to the chest, and he falls back as soon as he gets hit. Martin and Mister rush over, the former planning to use some pliers to rip the vamp's fangs out, when they hear some loud clattering inside the porta-potty. The noise continues, and the thing starts to shake, prompting Belle to get out of the car and approach with a gun drawn. The porta-potty's door flings open and Willie tumbles out, a rope tied around his torso and another around his

wrists. He tells them what happened and they get him to the car. That night, they have to stop and duck down inside the car in order to hide from a passing Brotherhood patrol. The next day, Belle approaches a lone cultist in the woods, crying like she's in pain and claiming that she's about to give birth. The cultist grabs a shotgun and points it at her, but doesn't shoot as she approaches, saying she's traveling with three men. He asks, "Where are they?", and she answers, "Right behind you." He turns around in time for Willie to whack him in the face with a rifle butt, and

he and Belle then get everything they can out of the back of his truck (he compliments her performance by saying she should've been an actress). Martin and Mister pull up and they chain the car to the truck to give off the illusion that they're cultists who've found the vehicle themselves.

That night, the truck pulls up at another Brotherhood roadblock. Jebedia and several of his followers approach, and he has them check the car. He walks up to the truck's driver's side, thinking it's Clem, one of his followers, and notices the other person sitting next to him. He asks if it's his son, and they both pull guns on him, while Belle pops up in the car with one, and Willie in the truck-bed. Before he can react, the driver knocks Jebedia to the ground using the door, then gets out and takes off his hood, revealing that he's Mister.

After Jebedia sneeringly tells them that Sister ran off, Mister kicks him in the face, knocking him out. Following that, they strip two of the cultists naked, burn their shrouds, and force them to run off, with their hands tied behind their backs. Mister and Willie drag Jebedia over to a tree, tie him to it, put some barbwire around his neck, and Mister then rips the back of his shirt open and cuts into his flesh, drawing blood. Knowing that any vamps in the area will smell it, even if they're miles away they drive off, leaving him there. As they do, his muttered praying, which he's been doing this whole time, becomes more and more panicked, and he finally lets out a scream.

The next major sequence is when they arrive in Strivington and take part in the town's festivities that night. Again, during this long, continuous take, everything is joyous and happy, but that changes right after Martin is reunited with Sister. The sound of a helicopter comes in, and when it shines its spotlight down on them, they realize it's the Brotherhood. They drop a vamp off to the left, and as Mister hands the little girl he was dancing with back to her father, another vamp drops into the chairs behind him. The

first vamp attacks a civilian, and as the helicopter drops more, the militia volunteers come running with their weapons, with one guy managing to blast several in a row. However, that doesn't stop them from feeding on their victims, and as more vamps show up, Mister's group flees amid the chaos. They head towards the nearest house, having to avoid one vamp that's on the porch, as well as the hail of gunfire. They rush inside and up to the building's second floor, as the carnage continues outside. They decide to stay there the rest of the night, when Willie asks the old 

woman he was dancing with how she's doing. She doesn't respond at all, and Sister gets no reaction when she waves her hand in front of her face. She checks for a pulse, then opens her coat to reveal a bloody bullet wound in her chest. Willie covers her body with a sheet, then comments that she didn't complain at all, even while they were running up those stairs after she'd been shot.

The next big sequence is when the group takes refuge in an auto junkyard after their car breaks down and they have to make their way through the woods. Like at the motel, Martin and Mister set up traps and makeshift alarms throughout the yard, and, that night, while everyone else sleeps, Mister stays up and keeps watch. They hear one of the "alarms" clatter and everybody wakes up. When Belle notes that there's no wind that could've rattled them, everybody gets to their feet, brandishing their weapons. A hubcap rolls through the yard, and when they scan the edges of 

the yard, they see glimpses of vamps scurrying around and hiding amid the junked cars. They then see them climbing up onto and across the cars' roofs, but just when they're waiting for an attack, a vamp flings open a car door behind Mister and knocks him to the ground. Belle promptly shoots the vamp when he screeches at her, but he gets back up and faces off with Martin, who has a spear. Willie comes up behind him and shoots him, but he quickly gets back to his feet and lunges at Martin. He knocks the spear out of his hand, then shrugs off two shots from Martin's 

own gun. Martin falls back, into the backseat of the vehicle behind him, and the vamp traps him there, but then, Mister comes up behind him, stabs him through the back of the head and out the mouth, and snaps his neck. He tells them that these vamps are berserkers, when more jump atop the vehicle that Martin is in. Mister lights a flare and uses it to hold them at bay, then yells for Martin to run. He backs away, prompting the vamps jump down after him, and he, Willie, and Belle run for it. They're then joined by 

Martin and Sister as they run into a nearby cornfield (that's actually my own guess as to what happened, as the editing makes it seem as though only Belle and Willie ran off with Mister, but then Martin and Sister are with them, albeit lagging behind). Sister falls behind everyone else, while Willie has to help Belle when her pregnancy makes running like this really arduous. Knowing she's holding the others up, Sister yells for them to keep going, and finds herself surrounded. Pulling out her gun, she blasts one 

vamp's head off, then runs off into the corn, with the others in hot pursuit. She doesn't get far before her strength gives out, and she stops in a clearing. She collapses to her knees, looking up at a scarecrow, which has a look akin to a crucified Jesus, and asks God for forgiveness before she kills herself, just as the vamps find her. Elsewhere, Martin freezes when he hears the gunshot, but Mister tells him to keep going, and he rejoins the group.

Following that, you have the moment when, while the remaining four are using the old school bus as shelter, Willie disappears one night when he goes outside to relieve himself. The next day, when Martin, Mister, and Belle go looking for him, they first find a piece of his blanket, and then his body, when it falls down from a tree where it was hung up and hits the ground near them. Checking his head, which is wrapped up in the rest of his blanket, Mister finds a nasty chunk bitten out of Willie's neck. Then, that night, while they're camping out in the woods, as Belle tries to

sleep, Martin and Mister hear rustling nearby. They get to their feet and scan their surroundings, when they see a figure run off into the woods less than twenty feet away. They chase after it, only for it to disappear, and Mister quickly realizes that its purpose was to merely lure them away. When they return to their campsite, they find that Belle has been taken. 

They follow her abductor's trail and, as dawn breaks, find the old silo, where they can hear her screaming. Though Mister warns him it's a trap, Martin says, "Tough shit," and heads on inside. He follows her screaming, and inside, finds her tied to the wall, with both a rope and metal mesh, bleeding from a bite in her neck, while her blood collects in a trough below her feet. Martin approaches her, when the now vampiric Jebedia grabs him from behind, slams his face into the bloody trough, then yanks him back up. He tells him, "Drink up, boy," and slams his face

down into the trough again. Mister enters the silo and Jebedia, hearing him, slams Martin down and gets up to face him. They stomp towards each other, but Jebedia's speed and strength give him quite the advantage, as he quickly punches Mister, grabs and twists his arm when he tries to retaliate, then grabs and lifts him by the neck, and throws him into some shelves. He lunges at Mister, grabbing him, pulling him up, and slamming him against the wall, and when Mister pulls out a stake, Jebediah takes it and pins his right hand to the wall with it. He does the same to his

other hand, and then tells him what happened when they left him out there for the vamps. He drags his claw down the side of Mister's face, drawing blood, and licks it from his fingertips, while Mister is clearly wincing and even whining in fear. Declaring, "I am your God now," Jebedia goes in for the bite, when Martin comes up behind him and stabs him through the back and out his torso with... something (I can't really tell what it is). Jebedia tells him, "Nice try, child," and roars, when Mister adds, "Try this, 

you fucker," and kicks Jebedia with both of his feet, which... again, I can't really tell what it does, due to the murky lighting and quick editing. It either fully impales his heart or breaks his spine but, whatever the case, it finishes Jebedia off, as he coughs up blood, lets out one last pained yell, and falls back onto the floor. After Martin removes the stakes from Mister's hands, he's forced to deliver the mercy kill to Belle. Following that, the last bit of action we get is when Martin and Peggy deal with some vamps that wander into the yard near her restaurant, but that's not even worth describing in detail.

The music score was by Jeff Grace, who often scores Glass Eye Pix movies and had, notably, scored Ti West's The House of the Devil by this point. Like the movie itself, the score is likely not what you would expect, as it's often low-key, emotional, and melancholic, rather than big and thrilling, or even scary. It does go for the latter in a few spots, but it mostly focuses on the overall dark, nihilistic, and hopeless tone. The most effective theme by far is this leitmotif they create for Belle, which you first hear, in a fairly innocent version, when she joins Martin and Mister, but takes on a tragic sound after she's been doomed by Jebedia and Martin has to do a mercy kill. Another effective theme is this strangely magical, tinkling sort of piece that you hear in scenes, like the montage after Sister has ended up staying with Martin and Mister. And there is a bit of a warped, religious sound to some of the music, as the movie opens with a song performed by Jimpson and Men With Axes called No More My Lawd, which is really unsettling due to its distant, echoing feel. It serves as an effective prelude to both the monstrous nature of the Brotherhood, as well as a nice intro to the world in shambles that we're about to enter.

Stake Land is the perfect example of a movie that's not terrible but certainly isn't great, either. It has a nice, if well-worn, concept; despite the issues with the characters and story, it does manage to have some dramatically effective moments; it's decently shot and directed, with at least one stand out example of the latter; its world-building is very on point, and makes good use of location work and art direction to do so; the depiction and portrayal of the vampires is interesting; there are plenty of gory makeup effects to

satisfy those hungry for some carnage; and the music score is quite good, albeit not likely what you're expecting. But, the movie suffers from a screenplay that's not that well developed, especially in regards to the characters, with the director mostly relying on their archetypal roles in the story and the actors' performances to carry most of the weight, which doesn't work for various reasons, and the same goes for the consistently monotone and overwritten narration by Martin. On top of that, the look of the movie is unappealing for the most part, with murky cinematography and clumsy editing sometimes making it hard to understand what's going on; it's much slower-paced than you might expect, and its downbeat, dour tone doesn't help its entertainment value; and there are some bad digital effects here and there. It's just so-so, and I'd strongly recommend 28 Days Later, Zombieland, or, keeping with the vampire theme, Daybreakers, instead.