Re: Random movie talky stuff.
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Stakeland trailer.
I just watched this today. Twice actually because I told a friend about it later and he really wanted to check it out. Still there were a few more things I picked up on the second time around (like the population number punched out from a city's sign), and I did quite enjoy it.
Put simply, it feels like a cross between The Road, and 28 Days Later. The vampires act like feral pack hunters more than the elegant and aristocratic type of Stoker mythos, and even further from the more romantic form that Anne Rice gives them, or how they are presented in True Blood. I don't want to say they act like zombies, they're too animalistic and savage to be lumped in with them. More like 30 Days of Night with less intelligence.
Regardless, I still think that The Road meets 28 Days Later comparison stands. Despite being a post-apocalyptic movie, its slow paced and focus of the villains shift from the lingering vampire menace to a more human enemy. The slow pace allows the situation and bleakness of the movie to settle in. Shots of scrawny and dirty children in ramshackle towns, of decaying old houses inhabited by forgotten corpses, the slow burn emphasizes the horror aspect of the film more so than the vampire attacks.
The action sequences are rather well done, if mostly fairly quick. There isn't anything too flashy, the gore isn't over the top though it is well placed, so if your looking for a blood and guts flick, there isn't anything special here. The dead baby scene at the start was surprising (vampire kills a baby, and drops it from the rafters of a garage. While the actual killing doesn't take place you do see the creature discard the infant on screen).
I also liked the characters. They all had a bit of mystery to them, and a air of desperation as they battled against hopelessness in a land where hope was a fading memory. Even the lone bad-ass is played and written well. A character that appears emotionally cold and aloof, but a few key scenes show that there's something beneath that. Something he pushes down not for appearances, but simply to stay alive.
All in all, I'd recommend this movie who likes a slow paced post-apocalyptic tale where the land itself is a character and the story all in its own. The startles are limited, the gore isn't thrown around the screen, and the characters are good. Check it out if you want something from horror that isn't a slasher film.