Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Review

Written by Stuart Cooper

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)

Starring Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper, Rufus Sewell and Mary Elizabeth Winstead

One of the many summer films I had been looking forward to was Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The movie is adapted from a popular book of the same title. I did not read the book so I won’t be able to compare the text to the film, but from what I’ve heard from others, there are a few differences. If you would like to let me know what those differences are then feel free to comment below. The film is pretty much exactly what the title says. It’s an alternate take on the life of Abraham Lincoln. In this version of his life he loses his mother at a very young age after witnessing a vampire murder her in the middle of the night, this causes Abe to form a distinct hatred of vampires and he in turn devotes a large portion of his life to destroying them. The film is definitely not the most historically accurate film, nor is it supposed to be. If you overanalyze the subject matter you probably won’t enjoy it. It is more-so along the lines of films like Wild Wild West and Jonah Hex, except much more entertaining. I wouldn’t have minded a few giant mechanical spiders in the film though.

The story itself starts off with Lincoln as a young boy, and then quickly jumps to his life as a young adult. There is no mention of his life in Kentucky which was unfortunate considering I’m a Kentucky native myself and would have liked to have seen more about that. Also thought we’d see something about his wrestling hobby, but I guess they only had so much time and couldn’t really touch on all the aspects of Lincoln’s life. Lincoln’s main goal at the beginning of the film is to track down the exact vampire that was responsible for killing his mother. This is not very hard since the vampire has been running the same shipping port since he was a child and still works in the same exact place. One thing that is rather convenient in the film is that the vampires can work and function in the daylight if they wear sunglasses and put on some type of extra strength suntan lotion. I thought this was a bit goofy but given the tone of the film I accepted it. It also helps explain why the vampires could be present on the battlefield during the Civil war (which I will get to later). In his search for vengeance Lincoln meets a few interesting characters along the way, some familiar to history buffs, some not. Lincoln encounters a man by the name of Henry Sturgess who actually becomes a Jedi master of sorts for young Lincoln. Henry is the one responsible for giving Lincoln some much needed focus and skill that he would need in his battle against the vampires. There is a great chemistry between Lincoln and Henry and I really enjoyed that aspect of the film. They had a nice Sherlock and Watson thing going on. Since Henry seemed to have a slight British accent I couldn’t help but imagine a BBC spin-off detailing the adventures of these two. As the film progresses Lincoln’s training is finished and he eventually becomes a vampire assassin of sorts. We see all sorts of cool “vampire hunting” sequences as a result, which delivers every time. The only pet peeve I have about some of the action sequences are the fact that at times Lincoln displays skills that no normal human would have. He seems to have super strength and super agility, despite the fact that he is not a vampire. This is never really explained other than the fact that he is just…a badass. Seeing Lincoln make use of the axe he wields is probably the highlight of the film. The moments when Lincoln is swinging his axe around like the lost member of the ninja turtles…priceless.

As far as the historical ties that the film has, there are a few. Several key players in history from that time period appear in the film. We see Lincoln’s wife Mary Todd Lincoln played by the always beautiful Mary Elizabeth Winstead, a small appearance by Harriet Tubman, and the incredibly charismatic Alan Tudyk as Lincoln’s political rival Stephen Douglas. The portrayal of Lincoln’s wife worked out pretty well but I was pretty letdown by the short screen time given to Alan Tudyk. Tudyk is one of my favorite actors and I think the film would have been served well by giving him a bigger role. There is also an interesting alternate take on the battle of Gettysburg which makes for a fun “what if” scenario. Unfortunately the film does not feature Stonewall Jackson and I thought that was a missed opportunity considering the asylum used his character in “Abe Lincoln vs. Zombies” and it actually worked in that one.

Overall Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is a fun shallow action film with some delightful action sequences and some quality acting from Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. The film could have been a lot better but the short comings were few and far between. If you are ready to sit back and relax and just enjoy a film, this would be a good one to choose. It’s definitely what you would call a “popcorn flick”. If you love either Abe Lincoln or vampires, then you will probably enjoy this film.

Abe Lincoln vs. Zombies Review

Written by Stuart Cooper

Starring Bill Oberst Jr, Don Mcgraw, and David Alexander

Four score and seven years ago, America faced a civil war and was briefly interrupted by a zombie outbreak…wait you mean you don’t remember that? Well the latest Asylum Hollywood mockbuster “Abe Lincoln vs. Zombies” centers on this idea. As most of you know there is a film coming out this summer called “Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” which is based on a novel in which Abe Lincoln hunts Vampires in the midst of the Civil War. In usual Asylum fashion a film was crafted with a similar premise, except instead of Vampires, Honest Abe is faced with a small zombie outbreak. Believe it or not this film actually ended up having a little bit of charm that makes it an entertaining watch all the way through.

Bill Oberst Jr. steps into the presidential shoes to play Abe Lincoln in the film and does so with full force. You have to give props to Oberst Jr. for taking the role seriously and actually bringing some good acting chops to the role. I really enjoyed his portrayal of Lincoln, while hokey at times, still entertaining. Though I couldn’t help but notice his voice is quite similar to that of the old police chief from Police Academy, I had to double check IMDB to make sure it was not the same guy, their voices are that similar! The film starts off with pretty much the exact same premise as Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Abe loses his mother to a zombie attack (as opposed to a vampire attack) and this causes him to form an intense hatred for Zombies and a bit of a dark side as he is actually forced to decapitate the zombie with a sickle at a very young age. Apparently Abe kept this sickle the entire time because it is his weapon of choice throughout the film (again, as opposed to the axe in the vampire version). Abe finds himself in the middle of a small zombie outbreak when he and his men are at a fort preparing for the next Civil War battle. The men accompanying Lincoln are actually an early version of the secret service, so that was kind of cool to see. After Lincoln accepts that the dead have risen, he organizes a group of men to hunt down and destroy every zombie they can find. Of course these men have moral complications since they don’t really believe in the undead, and feel as if they are being ordered to kill sick people. Funny enough one of the men that is helping out Lincoln is none other than his arch rival John Wilkes Booth. Obviously this film would not be historically accurate, so I can forgive the fact that Booth is randomly at his side during the film, though the character is actually deceptive throughout the movie, hinting at his obvious dark side. There are actually a few other historical faces that pop up throughout the film, most notably would be General Stonewall Jackson, who runs into Lincoln after a group of his men are found hiding from the zombie outbreak. Stonewall is actually quite the entertaining character throughout the film and honestly made me wish we could see Stonewall Jackson vs. Frankenstein or something. Another historical addition to the film is a Young Teddy Roosevelt who is apparently mothered by a group of prostitutes that Lincoln is friends with. It was very hard to type that sentence without laughing but it is part of the movie none the less! So there are certainly some funny moments in the film, whether they are intentionally goofy or not, I’m not really sure.

The actual look itself of the film is also not bad. Considering there is very little reason for CGI in most of the film, you aren't overloaded with low budget effects, and that certainly adds to the charm of the film. With most asylum films you are usually witnessing some type of giant CGI monster or CGI alien invasion, but since most of this film centers around humans, you only see a few little CGI tweaks here and there. Another cool little thing I noticed is that Lincoln calls the zombies "un-fortunates" instead of undead, I thought that was a nice touch. The Lincoln character definitely has that wise man persona that we've come to love about the real life figure. At one point he even tells young Teddy Roosevelt to "walk softly and carry a big stick" except instead of the original context of that quote, he means it quite literally since Teddy actually uses a big stick to fight off zombies.

If you have a free night and are up for redboxing a cheap fairly entertaining film, this one wouldn’t be a bad choice. If you keep in mind that you are watching a mockbuster and not a Hollywood summer blockbuster, there is definitely some enjoyment to be had. Compared to some of the latest Syfy originals, you could do a lot worse. Bill Oberst Jr. makes Lincoln a funny and badass character to watch, and the addition of Stonewall Jackson and John Wilkes Booth to the film makes for quite the interesting historical “what if”. I would say if you are in the mood for a cheesy horror film, this one is worth a watch. If you are a history buff like me, you might get some enjoyment out of the absurdity of the situations throughout the film. If you are very sensitive about historically accurate films then you might want to pass on this one.