Stake Land II

stakelandiismIt’s ten years since the vampire plague swept across America. Ten years since Martin and Mister made their way to Canada in hopes of finding sanctuary in New Eden, located in the far north where the cold means the vamps are unable to function. On the way they met Sister, Belle, Willie, and finally Peggy, but only Martin and Peggy completed the journey, the others killed or lost along the way.

Ten years have passed, and in the remains of what was once civilisation Martin and Peggy have made a life, Martin telling their daughter bedtime stories of vampires and the man who helped them make their way across the ravaged lands before he chose to walk alone into the darkness one night for reasons only he knew when they were so close to their destination.

stakelandiiaThey have little, but what is theirs they will defend fiercely. But what they can never have is any illusion that one day tragedy will not come knocking on their door in the middle of the night. Tracked by the Brotherhood, the dangerous cult of vampire worshippers which sprang up in the wake of the plague, now led by the one eyed and single minded Mother, they kill Peggy and their daughter, but leave Martin alive.

“The world didn’t die with a bang, it died with a scream, lots of them. And I heard all of them.”

stakelandiicWith nothing to lose, Martin hits the road in search of Mister, looking for hope in a world falling to pieces, for a reason to go on. What he finds is that the world has changed since his retreat, the vamps sufficiently desperate to hunt in the daylight, sizzling as they step from the shadows, and that humanity itself has regressed to cruelty, and not only among those who wear the mark of the Brotherhood, the survivors he encounters having turned to slavery and cannibalism.

“Hate seems to be the only thing that grows any more,” Martin broods. “You don’t need fangs to be a monster.”

stakelandiibReleased in 2010, Jim Mickle‘s Stake Land was brutal, bloody and uncompromising; produced as a television movie by Glass Eye Pix for SyFy, Stake Land II, subtitled The Stakelander, is brutal, bloody, but unfortunately very much compromised. Directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, it’s apparent they neither had the budget to achieve what was required nor the time to develop the action sequences as they were conceived, but they have made their best effort with the resources on offer the potential is frustratingly unfulfilled.

Filmed in the same palette and style as the original, it is sparse on dialogue and occurrence but generous on open plains and wide sky, Martin looking through broken windows in search of something to replace what he has lost; what he finds is conveniently fortuitous, a motorbike with a full tank of gas.

stakelandiidWritten by Nick Damici, as was the original in collaboration with Mickle, he reprises his role as Mister, as does Conor Paolo as Martin, their relationship as blunt as ever, Martin’s need for the presence of his former mentor at odds with Mister’s continued avoidance of any attachment or dependants, and as before it is their friendship and the performances of Damici and Paolo which drive the film, this time with Paolo stepping confidently into the spotlight, a man rather than an orphaned youth.

“They’re dead,” Martin tells Mister across the campfire. It is the second time he has lost seen his entire family killed before him; the last time it was Mister who saved him and taught him how to survive and fight vamps. “You’re alive,” Mister responds. “Act like it.”

stakelandiieNew characters include Olympus‘ A C Peterson as survivalist Bat and The X-Files‘ Steven Williams as former veterinarian Doc Earl, two of the very few dependable souls in the wild, and WolfCop‘s Laura Abramsen as Lady, a feral girl rescued by Martin and Mister from a Thunderdome-styled arena, but none are given sufficient development to become vital.

Lacking the scope or tension of the first and culminating in a half-hearted siege situation where the key factor is how economically it can be staged, nor are the Brotherhood as sinister as before, Kristina Hughes’ vengeful Mother a poor substitute for the fanatical determination which carried Michael Cerveris’ Jebedia Loven beyond death.

stakelandiigFeeling like nothing so much as a prelude to something which never arrives, Stake Land II is an acceptable but disappointing sequel which never reaches the sharp horror or the elegiac beauty and bleakness of the original for which it reaches, but nor does it make any attempt to become its own unique entity.

While Berk and Olsen have in no way disgraced themselves as thoroughly as John Boorman with Exorcist II: The Heretic, the inarguable law of diminishing returns of horror franchises would mean it is preferable that a third entry is only proposed should there be a compelling story offered to conclusively close the sequence and give Martin and Mister the heroic farewell they have earned.

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