A post apocalyptic world infested with vampires. Stragglers fight for survival, but most fall in defeat and become one of the blood-sucking creatures of the night. A lucky few band together and attempt to travel through "Stake Land" but face many issues ahead of them. Sounds like a great horror flick, but can it overcome the massive amounts of straight-to-DVD cheesy horror films released on a daily basis? There's one sure way to gain respect for an unknown film with promise: A stand-out soundtrack.

The Stake Land soundtrack is pretty spectacular, given all that it is. Stake Land isn't a major film, nor was its distribution worth noting. So it's extremely rare to see (or rather hear) how much work and effort was put into something that is so commonly overlooked. 

The composer, Jeff Grace, knows exactly how to capture the emotions of his audience. The combined elements of a lingering melody over western-familiar instruments sends chills up my spine just thinking of it. Not having seen the film yet, I'm intrigued to see how such an enjoyable and haunting soundtrack can affect the story. The opening track, "Main Title", almost sounds reminiscent of the opening theme to Star Wars. Obviously, that's one hell of a way to start off a movie. From then on, the pacing is fairly moderate. Each track accurately captures a mood and holds it for the entirety of the track. Things start to pick up with "Nothing Out There", which throws everything it has to the speakers in order to excite and startle the listener. 

The only flaws the Stake Land soundtrack seems to have is the short duration of each track. In total, the soundtrack contains 26 tracks, which is nothing to be upset at all. Especially if the soundtrack is as good as this one is. But the issue lies with how short each of the songs actually are. The longest time duration stands at 4 minutes and 57 seconds, with the shortest standing at a mere 57 seconds. Every track in between is around a minute and 30 seconds. If Grace had focused on making some of the more stand-out tracks a bit lengthier and cut out some of the more bland tunes, the soundtrack would top as one of the best in recent memory. Of course, this all depends on how it stands with the actual film, Stake Land.. On it's own, however, it's absolutely worth a listen.

Both horror fans and music enthusiasts will feel right at home with the soundtrack to Stake Land. With haunting rhythms and melodies as infectious as the bites of the vampires in the movie itself, Stake Land has found itself with an immensely enjoyable soundtrack that can only boost chances a superior horror film.