The thing with happy endings is that they stop being endings as soon as it's time for a sequel. And in the world of Stake Land, happiness has a way of not lasting.
Poor Martin (Connor Paolo) finds this out the hard way; After settling down in New Eden and raising a family, a new menace duly pops up and wipes them all out, leaving him the only survivor. The brotherhood, the first film's nation of religious freaks, have a new messiah in the Mother (Kristina Hughes), a powerful, intelligent vampire that can control her fellow, more feral undead, and she's the one Martin decides to take revenge on.
He can't do it alone, so heads south again into the Stake Lands (formerly the US) to look for the person who helped him get even the last time his family was massacred: the vampire hunter known as Mister (Nick Damici, who also wrote the script). He doesn't prove to be too hard to find; As someone cheekily observes, Mister is a legend. He is legend - get it?
The years have been rough on the land, eroding the more hopeful aspects that were such bright spots in the first movie and leaving behind a much meaner, but sadly standard-issue vision of the post-apocalypse in their wake; That's quickly apparent when Martin's first encounters feature such standards as the cannibal trap and a Thunderdome-like arena where captives are made to fight to the death.
It's in that combat arena where Martin finally finds Mister. They quickly team up, along with a feral woman (Laura Abramsen). They have some scuffles with the brotherhood, team up with some former associates of Mister's (A.C Peterson and Steven Williams), and make a last stand against the forces of the brotherhood and the Mother, whose motivations are a little bit more involved than it first appeared.
Stake Land 2 is still not an action movie - the fights are a little on the perfunctory side- but it's much more action-focused than the first one, and it's structured as such. After some dodgy scripting it finds its feet and comes up with some decent wrinkles for its story - it's good to spend more time with Martin and Mister, and the new batch of characters are all very likeable.
It's a good sequel, ably helmed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen (I saw they did this when I looked them up after watching their Significant Other - finding out there was a well-regarded sequel to Stake Land was a good consolation prize for watching that movie). It's not on the same level as the first, of course, but it's fun, does right by its characters, and the action is suitably brutal.
I liked that the Mother behaves more like a traditional vampire while still being a bit feral - she has a fun way to travel by day (showcased in a very cheesy, but fun scene), and even wears a gothic-ish cloak at one point. The way the film chooses to evolve the setting does diminish what made the first movie special, though, even as it tries to recapture the magic with some wistful (and cornier) narration from Martin and loads of magic-hour wilderness footage.
Oh, and there's a dead baby here as well. Guess it wouldn't be Steak Land without a murdered baby.
In any case, it's all a moot point because they missed the chance to call it Stake Land 2: Stakelander. I'm not sure I have it in me to forgive them for that.
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