Dawn is intended literally

Given the saturation with Stephanie Meyer’s young adult franchise, what’s the point of a plot synopsis? Either you know the story and you’re maybe interested in seeing for yourself where things go, or you don’t and you aren’t. For my part, I remain mystified by the franchise’s continued success given as how only two (!) major events happen in this entire film (mild spoiler warning, even though everything was pointed out in the trailer): Bella and Edward’s wedding, and Bella’s surprise pregnancy.

At least Breaking Dawn Part 1 is the best directed entry in the series; credit to Bill Condon in this regard, who provides some spooky imagery, even though the wolves still look far too computer generated to be convincing. Then again, so does Taylor Lautner, who plays the mostly quiet (or verbally stunted) Jacob. Quiet, that is, unless he’s screaming at Bella for what awaits her or threatening the perpetually waxy Edward (Robert Pattinson) for loving Bella. Not even Condon (Gods & Monsters) can completely salvage the vacuous narrative.

In their fourth film together, these characters still define themselves solely by their relationships with one another. Sure, there are social ripples in their own circles – vampires, werewolves – but you get the feeling that if one of the three main characters were to spontaneously evaporate, the other two would shortly follow. The wedding scene is perfectly fine in an adolescent-fantasy-forest-tree-princess kind of way, while the pregnancy is simply tedious. The child (“It’s a monster!”) is making Bella increasingly ill, and that’s all we see: Bella looking thin and frail like a Tim Burton stop motion character.

Bella remains on the road to vampiredom as her lamentably tired and depressing character arc still positions her as one who despises her species. I’m still amazed at how one shot of Carlisle (Peter Facinelli) can out-camp Rocky Horror. In this sense, the Twilight movies are not without their pleasures, but none of the four films so far has managed to be even the slightest bit exciting. Having read the novel, I’m also disappointed that this film didn’t translate all the gore from the book into corresponding blood drenched imagery. The Twilight films continue to fail as character dramas as well as supernatural narratives. At least this one has the dubious honour of introducing the worst character name yet though it sacrifices the homoerotic tension from Eclipse for some more preaching on the dangers of sex (have sex once and CARRY YOUR DEMON SPAWN!).

Where vampires don't glitter

Stake Land is a post-apocalyptic drama about sacrifice and survival framed against the backdrop of an America overrun by vampires. Independently produced, it is directed by Jim Mickle and stars co-writer Nick Damici as Mister, a middle aged, worn faced man who becomes a mentor to the recently orphaned young Martin (Connor Paulo) as they make their way to the possibly mythical New Eden, one of the last major human outposts away from the vampires. The protagonists’ travelling from one town to the next as they make their way towards New Eden also provides Stake Land with the opportunity to develop some road movie dimensions as the travellers engage with a variety of other characters who help – and hinder – them on their way.

The vampires are not the traveller’s biggest problem. There are other humans who view the vampires as some sort of divine blight visited upon the land. Here Mickle delivers some blood stained religious commentary while skilfully retaining some horror traits: there are gruesome deaths, lots of blood, staking and suffering. Meanwhile, the film seems to promote the nuclear family as the one last hope of humankind, as the travellers first meet a nun (Kelly McGillis, unrecognisable to those who yearned after her in Top Gun) and a teenage girl (Danielle Harris). Mickle is intelligent enough to know that the nuclear family, at least in the horror drama, has run its course, and Stake Land excels at confounding many expectations. (It does, unfortunately, have one or two bizarre "Karate Kid" training sequences.)  

Stake Land is sombre and violent; it occupies a space somewhere between the blood thirst of 30 Days of Night and the survival-elements of I am Legend. That said, those expecting an all-out blood bath with be disappointed as the film’s focus is on its human characters, not on blindly meeting genre fan expectations. It's a low budget wonder - check out the "making of" and the webisodes on the DVD extras to see exactly how much of a miracle the film is.