Mickle's observation of a devastated working-class America is so sharp that the horror elements, though effectively handled, come to feel like an afterthought. full review

Other undead movies needlessly foreground the action. "Stake Land'' has its fight scenes, but here they're secondary. full review

Shows that a savvy mixture of characterization, atmosphere and gore-eographed suspense can make even the most familiar fright tropes feel vaguely organic again. full review

"Stake Land" bursts with action, ideas and interesting characters. full review

Mickle has talent, and the end credits include a character known as "French Canadian Cannibal," which is worth a half-star right there. full review

Director Jim Mickle, who co-wrote the film with his star Nick Damici, has crafted a good-looking, well-played and atmospheric apocalyptic vision. full review

Though it has plenty of shocks, the film creates a wasteland that would be compellingly deranged even without vampires pressing insistently at every border. Horror is just the half of it. full review

Some numbers are too large to contemplate. How many drops of water are there in the ocean? How many grains of sand are there in the desert? How many more apocalyptic zombie movies must I sit through? full review

Ryan Samul's cinematography and Jeff Grace's score pick up the slack, smoothly maintaining an unstable atmosphere of lurking horror. full review

There isn't much dialogue, and most of the 98-minute running time is devoted to locking in one terrifyingly gothic encounter after another, but the characters are well defined, and director Mickle makes every dime of his micro-budget count. full review

It's an ambitious hybrid, grafting the ethereal, landscape-driven, light-infused beauty and naif narration associated with Terrence Malick onto a tale in which struggle against supernatural forces is just one challenge of coming of age. full review

A gritty, low-key hybrid of horror film and road movie that aptly demonstrates the stylistic flexibility of this undying genre. full review

Fans of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" will find much to enjoy in this sombre and nerve-wracking postapocalyptic horror film, directed and co-written by Jim Mickle. full review

A highly satisfying low-budget horror-thriller. full review