On Stake Land

A mysterious nameless stranger. A young, orphaned boy. A desolate and violent landscape. These are the key ingredients of writer / director Jim Mickle’s Stake Land. Stake Land moves along very familiar lines. We join the story when the vampires are already rife and America has already fallen. The stranger and the orphan are trying to make their way North, where the climate makes vampire attacks rarer and a so called Eden has been created in Canada with no vampires (although with added cannibalism, the orphan is warned). They kill vampires along the way and have become figures of stories amongst the small communities trying to survive. Along the way there are moments of joy and hope – a young, pregnant folk singer joins the hunters. Yet, the film rejects these small glimpses of hope, killing the singer and her unborn child and placing the narrative in a despondent mould.

The changing American landscape as the misfit group move North is beautifully shot and frames that linger on snow covered plants offers a peaceful respite from the incarnadine vampire attacks. Stake Land shares much in common with the superb television series The Walking Dead (2010) in its approach to the vampires (although The Walking Dead is zombies), who are driven by bloodlust but far from mindless animals. There are also comparisons to be made with I Am Legend (2007), especially with how the vampire attack is introduced and the glimmer of hope that may exist. Where Stake Land differs is the independent nature of the film. The smaller budget, the lesser known actors allow greater freedom in what could be viewed as a negative approach to issues of religion or American foreign and domestic policy. This is further heightened by the ambiguous ending. Overall, Stake Land offers little surprises for the genre, but delivers a quietly effecting film with the horror genre parameters.