Ambition and drive are great things in horror movies (and film in general) because even with the skimpiest amount of money and/or equipment anyone can pull off an entertaining film that rises above its limitations. Raising The Stakes is such a film and what makes it even more amazing is that writer-director Justin Channell and his cast (made up of friends) weren't even out of high school when they made this.

Steve (Josh Lively) and Bob (Zane Crosby) are the best of friends. They hangout together, they watch tons of horror flicks, and they also want to be vampires. But things just aren't working for the duo by simply plastering on dark make-up under their eyes and putting in fake fangs and that's quite apparent by their numerous failed attempts at "attacking" the locals. Yeah, Steve and Bob aren't very popular.

Things are about to change, or not, when they're approached by the owner of the nearby occult store (who calls a oil painting on the wall of his store, "Mr. Cornbread", and considers the painting his business partner) with the offer to sell them a potion that will turn them into actual vampires. Jumping on the opportunity, and emptying their pockets of all the money they have, they buy the potion and quickly gulp it down - little realizing they have to feed once every four days in order to stay alive. A task that might be easier said than done, considering they're more inept as real vampires than they were pretending to be them.

From there it's tons of off-beat adventures, a bizarrely out-of-place dream sequence staged like a silent film, lots of sarcastic dialogue, and the expected indie film cameo of Troma head honcho Lloyd Kaufman. Raising The Stakes basically throws every single idea Channell and his cast could come up with on the screen and while there's barely any sort of story to the thing it gets by on the strength of its two leads, a lightweight tone, and Channell's knack for dialogue (which is most in evidence during the guys' failed robbery of a convenience store).

Things aren't perfect though as the constant soundtrack running behind the action of songs donated by a handful of indie bands becomes a little bit distracting, the amateur cast ranges from good to bad (leaning more towards bad), and it eventually runs out of steam - but Raising The Stakes is still a recommended time as not only does it give you a look at what a batch of young horror fans can come-up with, but also because you're likely to get a handful of laughs along the way.

Channell is to be commended not only for actually completing a movie at such a young age, but also for making a decent one, while Lively and Crosby are the best things here with Lively constantly riffing on Crosby who's character is such a dumbass it's hilarious (check out his daydream sequences for the biggest laughs of the movie). Check this one out, it's more fun than you might expect.

Visit the Official Site for more info. (Chris Hartley, 1/16/06)

Directed By: Justin Channell.
Written By: Justin Channell.

Starring: Josh Lively, Zane Crosby, Ryan Stocking, T.J. Rogers.

Picture Ratio: Full Frame.

Picture Quality: What are you expecting a pristine 35mm look with no flaws and awesome clarity? You're not getting that from a movie made for less money than the catering of Steven Seagal's latest direct-to-video movie. That's not to say it's unwatchable, just don't expect more than VHS quality.

Extras: There's a surprising amount of extras on this disc with trailers, deleted scenes with intros by Channell, tons of outtakes, a featurette that has cast and crew goofing around over-dubbing scenes from the movie, footage of the film's local screenings, live performance footage from a few of the bands on the soundtrack, Channell's earlier short Killing Gregory with commentary and outtakes, and a chaotic group commentary that's more fun to listen to than most DVD's I've come across (since a lot are dry as Hell...).