Release date: April 22.
The cast: Connor Paolo, Nick Damici, Kelly McGillis, Danielle Harris, Sean Nelson.
The pitch: Set in a nondescript future world, a vicious virus/infection/monkey cold has taken hold of America, turning people into blood thirsty vampires. After witnessing the death of his family, Martin is taken under the wing of a mysterious vampire hunter possessing the charisma of Blade, the kung fu skills of Buffy and the face of a young dejected Mickey Rouke. Together, the pair make their way across a desolate United States to ‘New Eden’, the last remaining haven on earth.
The buzz: Vampire movies are pretty shot right now. Somewhere in between the glistening Abercrombie & Fitch models and the other miserable soul-searching sods who were roaming the earth, vampires kinda lost their way. But with Catherine Hardwicke now decisively turning to ruining crafting children’s stories, perhaps the coast is clear for the Vampire to return. Enter Stake Land, a no-nonsense vampire flick which has received enough positive festival press to warrant it the title of the film that’s ‘turning the corner’ for vampires films everywhere. Well we hope.
Reasons this could be good: Rather than going for a straightforward bloodthirsty romp, Stake Land is molding together a unique vampire infused road movie with just a dash of the Wild West. Much in the same vein of Serenity’s sci-fi/western extravaganza. We’re just hoping the result is more ‘badass lone gunmen’ and less ‘hang ‘em high’.
Reasons this could be bad: Stake Land is clearly no Citizen Kane, and it’s borrowing ideas left right and centre, but if it can’t hit the right notes and deliver on the fundamentals, then it could run the risk of being just another unforgettable low-budget horror film. Ex-rental bin anyone?
The verdict: LWLies was on hand at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival to assess Stake Land’s credentials.
Soundtrack: A varied assortment of bluegrass-style country music and folk ready to scare you six feet into the air.
Best bit: 1:14-1:16 – While there may be no stand out shot, you can’t help but hope that during this chase scene through a corn patch, that somewhere at the back is Harvey Jason shouting “DON’T GO INTO THE LONGRASS!”
Stake Land – Trailer Talk (text) by James Wright is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
