Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012) Review

 

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter follows a young Abe Lincoln, seeking revenge against the vampires that killed his mother, while fighting a war on another front. 

This revisionist tale, based on the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith is a personal favorite simply because it’s different, unapologetically. Everyone and their mother knows the history behind Lincoln at this point (rightfully so) and so framing his younger years and the Civil War itself as a personal quest to rid America of vampires is so off the wall but interesting all the same. There’s also a surprising level of accuracy to be found, in the early death of his mother and son, as well as the timeline in which things line up, which I don’t know, is just nice to see from a movie portraying him as a vampire slaying badass. 

What intrigued me the most is just how serious it takes all of this. In a film about hunting vampires, as 16th President of the United States, you almost expect it to be self aware of it’s corniness, but it plays everything off with a straight face to excellent avail. Slow motion kill-shots, stylistic action, and the whole vampirism in the Antebellum south (a gorgeous new setting) is just a perfect breeding ground for one of the hokiest but most original movies to come out in years. It’s like a bad B-movie given studio backing!

We get a solid cast in Anthony Mackie, Jimmi Simpson, Erin Wasson, Rufus Sewell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Dominic Cooper, and Benjamin Walker (who remained fairly unknown even after the movie’s release). I liked Walker as a young Lincoln (though they share zero resemblance), as he brought a steadfast interest to the role of Lincoln we’ve never really seen before (and made him a badass). The supporting cast in Mackie, Simpson, Winstead, and Cooper were also terrific and were additionally some of my favorite characters in the movie. 

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, directed by Timur Bekmambetov, is an off the wall revision of historical events that certainly doesn’t hold up to that other Lincoln movie from 2012 (Spielberg anyone) but is nonetheless an enjoyably thrilling ride that makes ol honest Abe even cooler as he hacks his way through blood-sucking vampires. 

7.5/10