Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter is definitely one of those films where you leave your brain at the door. Despite this fact it still makes for a fantastic watch, full of elaborate and exciting action, with a mix of the political and sometimes hysterical.
Directed by Timur Bekmambetov, known for his Russian language hit Night Watch and his English language debut Wanted, who fills the movie with his penchant for downright crazy but visually arresting action pieces. AL:VH takes America’s greatest president and makes him somewhat not so honest politics by day, vamp killing by night! The film has all the classic tropes of the vengeance movie, a young Abe sees his mother killed by a Vamp, causing a lifelong crusade for vengeance, and along the way he meets a peculiar man named Henry Sturgess. Cue action montages a plenty, as Sturgess bestows the knowledge of vampire hunting to Abe and sets him off on a mission to vanquish the creatures of the night.
Despite its somewhat ridiculous premise, Bekmambetov takes the source material quite seriously, blending real historical facts very well with Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel. It is easy to knock the film for its outrageous source material, but you can’t help but enjoy thinking of Abraham Lincoln running around the South slicing up Vampires with a rather large axe. The action is definitely the film’s high point and something that Bekmambetov does rather well, deploying his signature use of slow motion, coupled with the impressive CGI scenes. These sequences include a duel between Abe and his mother’s killer, Jack Barts, upon and around a never ending pack of horses, which makes for a rather ludicrous but exciting fight.
As Abe ages he resigns his trusty silver axe and takes on the problems at hand. This is where the film sinks its teeth into more historical events and puts a darker vamp twist on them, such as the battle of Gettysburg seeing the South getting help from the vamps. Unfortunately some of these battle sequences do feel rather lacklustre in comparison to the superhuman feats of Abe himself.
The cast is surprisingly strong, especially Benjamin Walker who does an impressive take on Abe thankfully not becoming a poor caricature despite being in heavy prosthetics throughout much of the film. The main flaw would be the vampire threat. Vamp leader Adam, despite being talked about as an incredible and unstoppable force, never really gets the time to show it, and in the film’s climactic fight sequence doesn’t do much make himself seem the impressive.
AB:VH is a great slice of escapist action. Despite a somewhat ludicrous idea, Bekmambetov brings his visual panache to the fore and makes a simply fun movie. Taking all the tropes of the classic vengeance action movie and applying them to America’s honest Abe may be a bit too ridiculous for some, but for those who are willing to not take it too seriously this will be fantastic fun.
Overall Verdict: A simple popcorn action fest. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is an easy watch with a great blend of the historical and the downright fictional.
Special Features:
(Blu Ray only)
The Great Calamity graphic novel
Audio commentary with writer Seth Grahame-Smith
Making of
Powerless’ music video by Linkin Park
Reviewer: Gareth Haworth