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Review: Stake Land

Tale of a vampire plague
By PEG ALOI  |  April 27, 2011
3.5 3.5 Stars

From producer Larry Fessenden (Wendigo) and filmmaker Jim Mickle (Mulberry Street) comes this minimal, profound tale of a vampire plague in America. A mercenary called "Mister" (co-writer Nick Damici) rescues a teenage boy (Connor Paolo) from vampires. Mister schools the boy in killing, and they head north for "New Eden" (a/k/a Canada). They adopt fellow travelers: a hardy nun rescued from rapists (Kelly McGillis), a pregnant folk singer (Danielle Harris), and an ex-soldier (Sean Nelson) left for dead by members of a racist Christian militia. The realistic dialogue, dreamy photography, and heady score revalorize the undead genre, eschewing Zombieland's hipster humor and Survival of theDead's odd provincialism. This is The Road meets Testament by way of The Devil's Rejects, in the best possible way: a brutal, elegiac take on how a post-apocalyptic America might look and feel.

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  Topics: Reviews , Science Fiction, Larry Fessenden, Sean Nelson,  More more >
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 See all articles by: PEG ALOI



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