Stake Land II - Steak served raw

It was widely regarded that, for a 'B-movie' at least, the original 'Stake Land' was actually pretty good.  Yes, it didn't offer much that was new when it came to post apocalyptic tales with one monster or another having wiped out of 90% of humanity (in this case vampires), but the characters were enjoyable to watch and it certainly seemed like a step above the rest.  I guess even this small cult following meant that it was destined to spawn a sequel.  You may think that, by my tone, that I absolutely hated 'Stake Land II.' I didn't.  In fact, I can hardly think of a bad thing to say about it.  However, I also can't think of anything good to say about it either.

Basically, the world has been overrun by vampires and what's left of humanity is huddled together in make-shift communities, trying to survive the best they can.  In short, think 'The Walking Dead,' but with vamps (who don't 'sparkle' in sunlight, fortunately!).  In the first outing we met Martin (Connor Paolo) - a young man who's trained to hunt the vampires by the mysterious old man only known as 'Mister' (Nick Damici).  It's rare in horror movie sequels to get the main cast back, but fortunately here both actors return, only Martin's new family gets murdered and Mister is nowhere to be found, hence Martin goes on a journey to track his former mentor down.

The first thing I noticed in the sequel was that now the vampires also come out during the day (yes, I know this was also a 'thing' during Bram Stoker's 'Dracula,' but it's still quite rare in vampire lore).  There's a line about how they're now getting more desperate for food with the ever-diminishing supply of humans.  But the fact that the creatures came out during the day only went yet further to make this whole film feel like merely just a feature-length episode of The Walking Dead.

Then there was what was basically the whole first half of the movie where our characters go from one group of humans to the next, only to discover that people are far more dangerous than the bloodthirsty monsters that actually destroyed human society to begin with.  I hate to bang on about 'The Walking Dead,' but - again - I felt like I was watching an episode of the show I'd somehow missed during its run-time.  This all gets a little stale pretty soon.  Granted the film does pick up in the second half and there's more action, but it's just so run-of-the-mill and generic that anyone who has watching anything even similar will have already seen better.  Did I mention a popular zombie-related TV show does it better?

I watched the original 'Stake Land' many years ago and I can remember a lot about it.  I watched 'Part II' a couple of days ago and I'm seriously struggling to recall much more about it.  Oh, yes, there was a moment near the end involving a kiss which made me smile, but you'll have to actually watch the film to see what I mean.  Apart from that, 'Stake Land II' was very forgettable.  Definitely stick to the original.  If there is a 'Part III' I probably won't bother.

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back