A Fantastic Fest ’10 review
Cast:
Nick Damici as Mister
Connor Paolo as Martin
Kelly McGillis as Sister
Danielle Harris as Belle
Sean Nelson as Willie
Michael Cerveris as Jebedia Loven
Review:
Forget that the meek shall inherit the earth.
In director Jim Mickle’s intimate, but heavily politicized, Stake Land, the deserved winner of the Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness award, a plague has transformed millions into vampires. Yet the biggest threat to the scared survivors – at least to those who have not seen the light – is an order of religious fanatics known as the Brotherhood. Led by the charismatic but maniacal Jebedia Loven (Michael Cerveris), the Brotherhood preaches that God sent forth the “vamps” to wipe out nonbelievers and the impure. The Brotherhood freely assists the vampires by killing off anyone who doesn’t share their religious beliefs, especially those of different color and creed.
So, it isn’t just the bloodsuckers Mister (Nick Damici) and Martin (Connor Paolo) must worry about as they travel north in search of a vampire-free refuge in Canada known as New Eden. Mister and Martin are on the Brotherhood’s hit list after the former killed Jebedia’s son for attempting to rape a nun. The Brotherhood controls many of the roads leading to Canada, making it almost impossible for Mister and Martin to make it to their destination without getting their hands bloody.
Envisioned by Mickle and co-writer Damici as a post-apocalyptic Searchers of sorts, the gripping Stake Land eschews the heightened sense reality favored by the likes of Daybreakers to tell a sober tale of a world gone mad through the eyes of two lost souls with nothing to lose and everything to gain. The cold-as-steel Mister takes Martin under his wings when the young boy’s family is killed at the beginning of the outbreak. Years later, Mister’s trained Martin in the fine art of vampire slaying through the use of stakes, guns and whatever other weapons are at their disposal.
Unlike John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter in The Searchers, Mister and Martin aren’t scouring a savage land to find a missing friend or relative. They are seeking the mythical safe haven, which requires going through treacherous Brotherhood territory.
Mister guns down Jebedia’s son to save a nun known only as Sister (Kelly McGillis). The ramifications are felt almost immediately, with Jebedia capturing and enslaving Martin and Sister while leaving Mister in the company of some very thirsty vampires.
Martin escapes and finds Mister alive and wellâit’s going to take a small army of vampires to drain him of his precious blood. Unsure of Sister’s fate, Mister and Martin resume their journey, picking up along the way the pregnant Belle (Halloween and Hatchet 2‘s Danielle Harris) and ex-soldier Willie (Sean Nelson).
The cast of Stake Land makes us care that these disparate traveling companions make it safely to their destination. Mister’s cut from the same cloth as Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name – as played by Damici, he’s a shoot-first modern-day cowboy who chooses his words of wisdom carefully. Martin’s the reluctant young warrior with much to prove, but Paolo imbues him with a sense of idealism that cannot be shaken under any circumstances. It gets a few minutes for you to realize that the 50-ish gray-haired nun called Sister is Kelly McGillis. Has it been that long since we last saw her on film? No matter: McGillis treats Stake Land with the respect it deserves by delivering a graceful performance that offers a study in contrast with Cerveris’ fire-and-brimstone theatrics. Harris makes the most of her opportunity to show she can do more than scream as mother-to-be Belle. Harris keeps Belle’s grounded, but she carries with her an optimism that is welcomed during such an uncertain time.
While Zombieland played its road trip for laughs, Mickle and Damici treat the end of the world as we know it as a chance to explore the unraveling of the social fabric with great seriousness. The
