Stakeland



Stakeland is a new take of the post-apocalyptic world scenario, though this time not through nuclear or natural disasters but a virus that cause people to turn into vampires -- vampires which pleasantly don’t follow the normal rules for the genre (good looking, suave and uber “RPatz” six packs). In Stakeland they are more of a hybrid, a vamp cross zombie which works really well and is a very welcome change from the norm.

The film follows the journey of Mister, the mysterious loner, and Martin a recently orphaned teenager who Mister rescues and takes under his wing. Their journey sees them trying to reach the salvation of “New Eden” aka Canada, and the battles and friends they make along the way.

The film feels like a pleasant change to the horror genre and has an air of The Road and The Book of Eli about it. It stars a relatively unknown cast apart from a rather old looking Kelly McGillis (Top Gun). They all play their parts well and are convincing in their roles.

Where Stakeland lets itself down is the over use of the cinematic transitions the director uses to cover the large portions of their journey. It seems every time they got into a car we had to have this slow down and switch to bittersweet music. I felt that if they used this maybe once or twice it would have worked, but instead it happened five or so times and really made the film drag in parts. That coupled with a very corny ending brings the score down for me.

IMHO give Stakeland 6/10