History Main / WoodenStake

* In ''VideoGame/Infamous2'', after losing his Amp, Cole makes a makeshift wooden stake out of a large cross with a pointy bit of wood on the end from a broken coffin lid.

* ''Film/{{Lifeforce}}'': Played with. The space vampires are vulnerable to [[ColdIron iron stakes]], and they have to be stabbed a few inches below the heart to actually kill them.

* In ''Manga/{{Shiki}}'', a stake to the heart is one of the preferred methods in dealing with the many vampires running around. It does however not need to be a wooden stake, any kind of stake will do as long as it pierces the heart and keeps it from repairing itself in a timely fashion.

* ''VideoGame/{{Metaspace}}'': The Mage Hunter {{Mooks}} can fire wooden stakes at high speed. ''[[IncendiaryExponent Burning]]'' ones.

* In ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends" segment "Count Lasagna", Dracula (played by Jon) tells his cat, Count Lasagna (played by Garfield) that villagers are coming with a stake. At first, Count Lasagna thought he meant a "[[FunWithHomophones steak]]".

In early vampire fiction, stakes were simply used to pin a "vampire" into its [[VampiresSleepInCoffins coffin]] while it slept, [[SealedEvilInACan keeping it from waking back up and causing trouble]]; some old graves had several stakes in it, as wood eventually rots and has to be replaced. It was also a lot harder to get the stake in than it is in modern fiction -- you had to hammer the stake in with a mallet or a gravedigger's shovel to get through the vampire's ribcage (and in some regions, through the dirt and coffin itself, to avoid digging). This went along with such nice methods of preventing vampire from rising up as placing a sickle on their neck (so the vampire would sever its own head if it moved) or putting vampire-repelling plants such as garlic in the coffin.

Slavic versions of folklore specify that it has to be not just ''any'' wood, but specifically quaking aspen, generally a bane to all creatures of the dark; some trace it back to Bible, stating that aspen was the tree Judas Iscariot hanged himself on.

* ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania'': Stakes are briefly discussed between Johnny and Dracula when the former inquires about vampire myths. Dracula balks at it, claiming "Who wouldn't that kill?".

* In ''Film/MyBestFriendIsAVampire'', Professor McCarthy is trying to "prove" that Ralph is a vampire, and claims that if he dies of being staked, that's proof. Jeremy points out that a stake through the heart will kill ''anything''.[[spoiler:The actual vampire is Jeremy. Ralph's as normal a human being as a hormone-overloaded teenage boy gets.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TownOfSalem'', this is the WeaponOfChoice of the {{Vampire Hunter}}s (at least until all the Vampire are dead and they pick up a gun). A cross-shaped stake is featured in their avatar, and they use it to kill vampires in their kill messages.

->'''NOS-4-A2:''' ''[roars in pain]'' You could have at least used an adaptor.

* Figures in ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'', naturally, but surprisingly averted at the end: Dracula himself is killed by Quincy's Bowie knife in his heart (and Harker's kukri taking off his head). Also [[UnbuiltTrope Unbuilt]]: staking Lucy is difficult and messy, requiring several squirming hammer blows.