Raising the Stakes

Director - Justin Channell (Die and Let Live)
Starring - Josh Lively (Winners Tape All: The Henderson Brothers Story), Zane Crosby (Basic Slaughter), and Ryan Stocking (Faces of Schlock)
Release Date - 2005
Genre - Horror/Comedy
Tagline - "There's a sucker born every minute"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

     When I was younger I absolutely loved vampire movies.  I grew up loving Fright Night, The Lost Boys, Children of the Night, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Once Bitten, and so many more.  I absolutely loved them.  When it comes to horror the vampire was my first love.  Sadly, vampire films fell into a slump in the 2000s with films like Queen of the Damned and the Twilight Saga but not all of them are bad.  Sometime ago I picked up a Justin Channell double feature with Die and Let Live and Raising the Stakes.  At the time I had no idea that Justin and crew were from West Virginia which is something that came to light after picking up his newest film Winners Tape All: The Henderson Brothers Story.  After seeing how awesome WTA was I had to make time to check out his other work.

     The film follows best friends Steve (Lively) and Bob (Crosby) who want to be vampires...so much so that they pretend to be them at night.  This often leads to humiliation for them both before they are confronted by an unusual man who offers to make them both vampires.  They reluctantly agree but soon find themselves the victims of their own curiosity and take the stranger up on his offer.  They soon find themselves actual vampires but are forced to feed within a certain time before they die.  This turns out to be harder than they imagined as they are still weak and nerdy. Its a race against the clock to find them some blood before they die.

      It is a difficult task to make a movie for most indie filmmakers.  They lack equipment, knowledge, budget, and so much more that most film sets have.  What they have that these big budget sets don't is heart and dedication.  Raising the Stakes is a vampire film that lacks a lot of things but it still is able to find its way and entertain the viewer.  The acting in this one is decent for the most part but nowhere near the quality of acting we got in Channell's follow up, Die and Let Live.  The cast is clearly having fun in each scene but their lack if experience is very noticeable.  We once again get a fun performance from stars Josh Lively and Zane Crosby.  They work so well together and I can see why Channell keeps casting them opposite of each other.  The story for this one has its moments.  It would have worked better as a short but is still works for the most part.  I really enjoyed the premise following two nerds who want to be vampires.  Sadly, this runs its course fairly quickly and the film repeats itself.  The film begins with them packing an ass whooping because they pretended to be vampires.  After several scenes full of boring dialogue we then follow the two, now vampires, as they pack ass whoopins from the same people.  The film would have worked so much better if it was a short.  Finally, those of you looking or blood and gore will not find it with this no budget outing.  The film relies heavily on story instead of kills and death.  Overall, Raising the Stakes is a fun no budget vampire flick.  It has a fun story that I would love to see Channell, Josh Lively, and Zane Crosby visit again with the knowledge they now have.  Check it out.  I hear its free on YouTube now.