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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Stake Land (2011)

Rating: 2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Not So Legend

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

The press materials for Jim Mickle's Stake Land reference author Richard Matheson, but only insofar as it includes a kind of cross between vampires and zombies, as Matheson employed for his great novel I Am Legend. Otherwise, Stake Land starts off as a kind of very serious, dreary version of Zombieland. A naive teen (Connor Paolo) joins up with a grizzled hardass called "Mister" (Nick Damici, who co-wrote the script), who teaches the youngster how to kill the ravenous beasties. They keep traveling north, hoping to run into some kind of haven, and pick up the usual batch of misfits (including Top Gun's Kelly McGillis) along the way. It's all fairly typical. What sets this movie apart, however, is the appearance of a bizarre religious cult that could be more dangerous than the monsters. If only it had gone farther... (Reviewed at the San Francisco International Film Festival.)

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With: Nick Damici, Connor Paolo, Kelly McGillis, Michael Cerveris, Danielle Harris
Written by: Jim Mickle, Nick Damici
Directed by: Jim Mickle
MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody horror violence, language and brief nudity
Running Time: 96 minutes
Date: April 22, 2011