anguspage12

"Stake Land" is a film about Martin (played by Connor Paolo) and Mister (Nick Damici), who travel across the nation that has become over run by blood-thirsty vampires, in search of New Eden, a settlement in Canada that promises to be a safe-haven in an apocalyptic country. Along the way, they meet up with other, equally-like-able characters such as Sister (Kelly McGillis), Belle (Danielle Harris), and Willie (Sean Nelson), as they struggle along as desperation and death surrounds them with false promises of hope and safety.

This film was amazing on every level for a horror film, and I would say that the greatest thing going for the movie are the characters. You have Martin, who is learning the ropes of killing vampires after he is saved from a vampire ,who killed his whole family, by Mister, and you have to give Connor Paolo credit for making the character very human and like-able, even though his emotions when his family is killed isn't really "all there". But my favorite character has to be Mister. I just love the way he grasps this apocalyptic vampire world by it's bloody throat and commands it to listen. Every time he's on screen, he steals the show.

But I would also say that another big character in this film is the apocalyptic setting. The whole landscape is strewn with carcasses of the long-forgotten, and the hanging bodies and lying skeletons (some of them not exactly adults, either) just sets one of the creepiest atmospheres that I have ever seen in my life as a horror film buff.

And while what some people say about the ending might be true (I'll admit, it underwhelmed me a bit) the film is one of the tightest apocalyptic/horror films that I've seen in a while. The director, Jim Mickle, is on a two-for-two winning streak for me (his previous film, Mulberry St, was ,to me, the best "Horrorfest" entry of that year) and he really sets this great gritty and grim mood for the film. He has written some great characters that I would LOVE to see again (after all, the ending kinda does leave opening for a sequel). Overall, it's a great film that any fan of the apocalypse or vampire genre should see.

So...usually, before I get into what I liked and didn't like about a movie when I review it, I usually give a plot summary to show others what it's about. But, in this case, I cant give one because, frankly, there IS no plot

Now, I have good news and bad news about this film. The good news is that this film goes above and beyond the normal setting for films going "too far". The bad news? There's not much else to this film.

A thing that I have to praise this film for is it's one on-going shot that's used for almost the entire film. If you want to become a director, cinematographer, or pretty much anything else to do with film, you should see this film purely on that.

But, the major down-side to this film is that it's just plain boring at times. I'm not one of these conservative people who will hate this film because "It's too terrible" or "It will corrupt the kids" or anything like that. I mainly don't like it that much because it's just plain boring at times. Your waiting for the film to move on at points, but it never really does.

Maybe that was the director's intentions or the actors intentions (because you can tell that this film is mainly improv), but whatever it is, it's not something that you should really see OTHER than the technical stand-point.

Lake Mungo is about sixteen-year-old Alice Palmer, who drowns in the local dam, and her family, who, since after her death, have been plagued with paranormal events around their house. Since they think it's Alice, they seek help from psychic and parapsychologist Ray Kemeny, who, after investigating the tapes of cameras around the house and through other family members and friends, discovers that Alice, before dying, wasn't all what she seemed to be. All of the clues lead back to Lake Mungo, where Alice's secrets emerge.

The film is shot documentary style and there's a thing that separates this from, say, The Blair Witch Project. With The Blair Witch Project, it was meant to show that the people that were shooting the film were not at all professional documenters. While with this film, everything seems like a real-life documentary.

And the thing that shines about this film is the acting. You have actors who seem like real-life people and not actors. They actually FEEL like they have had this bad experience happen to them. And you buy them as those people.

The one down side to this film, though, is that there are things in the film that are just dropped. There are two or three moments in this film where the writer and director of the film should have built up to. But, it just falls to the sidelines. You think there is a reason for something, but it turns out it was something else and they never mention it again. Really? I mean, they could have made REALLY good plot points in the film.

But, overall, it's a good flick. It has it's creepy moments and, I gotta say, the ending did creep me out.