Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter [MA]

When a vampire murders his mother when he is just a boy, Abraham Lincoln, makes it his life’s mission to have his revenge. When he grows up and befriends a vampire hunter, he learns the skills of the art and then sets his plan for revenge into motion. But along the way he falls in love, discovers his power with words, and becomes President of the United States of America. With civil war threatening to tear the country apart, Lincoln’s priorities change but his lifelong goal is never from the forefront of his mind and it’s realised yet again when the vampires begin to dish out a little revenge of their own. 

On a twenty-something hour flight from Sydney to London what else is there to do but watch movies? I was keen to watch this film as it’s written by Seth Grahame-Smith (based on his novel) who wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as well as worked with Tim Burton on Dark Shadows. After watching the movie, I’m not too sure whether I’m as keen to read the book now. 

When a vampire murders his mother when he is just a boy, Abraham Lincoln, makes it his life’s mission to have his revenge. When he grows up and befriends a vampire hunter, he learns the skills of the art and then sets his plan for revenge into motion. But along the way he falls in love, discovers his power with words, and becomes President of the United States of America. With civil war threatening to tear the country apart, Lincoln’s priorities change but his lifelong goal is never from the forefront of his mind and it’s realised yet again when the vampires begin to dish out a little revenge of their own. 

The story is solid it has to be said. The retelling of true events, historical true events, and reworking them by adding some supernatural intrigue is never really a bad thing, but unfortunately it does not always work. I found this movie to be a movie that tried to blend the genres of period history, horror, and war together and then found that it simply could not. The blending of genres worked well enough for Cowboys and Aliens, but sadly not for Smith’s supernatural take on history. 

The script was shakily constructed, harbouring a fair few different stories, morals, and messages as well as the central hero’s tale and, as such, I found it very hard and tiresome to try and make sense out of everything that was being said and done. What also annoyed me about the film’s writing was that it began as one thing and then was twisted into something else entirely, it actually felt that it was changed halfway through, as though the writers suddenly foresaw that the path ahead was a short one. We start as a revenge-fuelled horror tale, which I didn’t mind so much, but then the central drama comes in the form of a years later war epic, recreating the Civil War and using that as a front for Lincoln’s final climactic battle with the vampires. It all became a bit too weird for me. 

There were fine performances from all the cast which includes Benjamin walker, Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rufus Sewell, Martin Csokas, and Jimmi Simpson and it was filled with action, horror, gore, romance, drama, and war, but ultimately Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter was a film that just didn’t do it for me. I’m sure there are fans out there, but I certainly would not recommend this film.