31 Days of Horror! Stake Land II: The Stakelander



When I saw that a sequel to Stake Land had been made, I was pretty excited. So much so, I decided to rewatch the first movie. And I'm happy I did...watch the 1st movie again. I was not so excited with the sequel.

Of course I was not naive to believe that the second movie would be as good as the first. I was hoping for close at the very least. But I digress. 

Stake Land II: Stakelander picks up a few years after the first one. [Note: spoilers to the first movie follow.] The movie begins showing Martin grown up, married to Peggy, the girl he met at the end of Stake Land, with a young daughter. When their safe haven is attacked by the Brotherhood, led by The Mother, Martin sets out to find Mister to help exact his revenge.

What follows is a disjointed mess filled with cardboard characters thrown in seemingly at random. The storyline definitely had potential, yet the translation from idea to film somehow missed its mark.

The character of The Mother was great in theory, but the execution of her fell flat and was short lived. I did like the addition of Lady, but the flashbacks to Mister's past was completely random.  Overall, I felt like the message of the movie was lost somewhere on the cutting room floor...