Taglines: President by day. Hunter by night.
This movie speculates that Abraham Lincoln as a child saw his mother killed by a man she stood up to. Years later Abe would find the man and try to kill him but for some reason he doesn’t die. He tries to kill Abe but a man saves him and nurses Abe. When Abe awakens, the man, Henry Sturges, tells him that the man he was trying to kill is a vampire and he is a vampire hunter.
Abe wants to learn how to kill them and Henry teaches him and makes him an ax lined with silver, which is the weapon Abe prefers. Abe would then study law and move to Springfield to become a lawyer and to hunt vampires. He meets Mary Todd but Henry cautions him about relationships. Eventually Abe slays the vampire who killed his mother but before dying he tells Abe that Henry has not been honest with him. He confronts Henry, who doesn’t deny it.
Abe would come face to face with Adam, a vampire who plans to make the country his. Abe would give up hunting vampires, marry Mary and would continue his work as a lawyer and would become President. And when the Civil War breaks out, Abe learns that Adam is aiding the Confederacy and when it appears that they are close to winning, Abe must find a way to stop them.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is a 2012 American dark fantasy action horror film directed by Timur Bekmambetov, based on the 2010 mashup novel of the same name. The novel’s author, Seth Grahame-Smith, wrote the screenplay. Benjamin Walker stars as the title character with supporting roles by Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rufus Sewell, and Marton Csokas. The real-life figure Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States (1861–1865), is portrayed in the novel and the film as having a secret identity as a vampire hunter.
The film was produced by Tim Burton, Bekmambetov, and Jim Lemley. Filming began in Louisiana in March 2011 and the film was released in Real D 3D on June 20, 2012 in the United Kingdom and June 22, 2012 in the United States. The film received mixed reviews, with critics praising the visual style, action sequences, originality, Walker’s performance and Henry Jackman’s musical score, but criticism was aimed at its screenplay, the overly serious and inconsistent tone, overuse of CGI, and pacing. It was a box office failure, only grossing $116 million against a budget of $99 million.
Film Review: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” is without a doubt the best film we are ever likely to see on the subject — unless there is a sequel, which is unlikely, because at the end, the Lincolns are on their way to the theater. It’s also a more entertaining movie than I remotely expected. Yes, Reader, I went expecting to sneer.
The story opens with young Abe witnessing the murder of his mother by a vampire. He swears vengeance, and some years later is lucky to be getting drunk while standing at a bar next to Henry Sturgess (Dominic Cooper), who coaches him on vampire-killing and explains that it is a high calling, requiring great dedication and avoiding distractions like marriage.
There’s an early scene in which Lincoln tries to shoot a vampire, but that won’t work because they’re already dead. Then whatever can he do? “Well,” he tells Henry, “I used to be pretty good at rail-splitting…” This line drew only a few chuckles from the audience, because the movie cautiously avoids any attempt to seem funny.
Lincoln’s weapon of choice becomes an axe with a silver blade, which he learns to spin like a drum major’s baton. That he carries this axe with him much of the time may strike some as peculiar. I was reminded uncannily of Buford Pusser, walking tall and carrying a big stick.
Against Henry’s advice, Lincoln (Benjamin Walker) marries Mary Todd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and the story moves quickly to his days in the White House, where he discovers that the vampires are fighting on the side of the South. This seems odd, since they should be equal opportunity bloodsuckers, but there you have it. Still with him his childhood friend Will Johnson (Anthony Mackie), a free black man whose mistreatment helped form Lincoln’s hatred of slavery. Also still at his side is Joshua Speed (Jimmi Simpson), who hired him in his Springfield general store; Johnson and Speed join Lincoln in Civil War strategy sessions and are his principal advisers, roles overlooked by history.
The film, directed by Timur Bekmambetov and written by Seth Grahame-Smith, based on his novel, handles all these matters with an admirable seriousness, which may be the only way they could possibly work. The performances are earnest and sincere, and even villains like Adam (Rufus Sewell), the American leader of the Vampire Nation, doesn’t spit or snarl over much. It regrettably introduces but does not explain Vadoma (Erin Wasson), a statuesque woman who is several decades ahead of time in her taste for leather fetish wear. Are vampires kinky? I didn’t know.
Although we do not attend “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” in search of a history lesson, there’s one glitch I cannot overlook. In the first day of fighting at Gettysburg, the Union sustains a defeat so crushing that Lincoln is tempted to surrender. This is because the Confederate troops, all vampires, are invulnerable to lead bullets, cannon fire and steel blades, and have an alarming way of disappearing and rematerializing. Over breakfast, Lincoln confides his despair to his wife and says conventional weapons are of no more use against them than — why — than this fork! As he stares at it, he realizes it is silver, and vampires can be killed by silver weapons, as he has proved with his axe-twirling.
Now try not to focus too much on the timeline. After his realization, Lincoln mobilizes all resources to gather wagonloads of silver in Washington, melt it, and manufacture silver bayonets, bullets and cannon balls. Then we see him, Johnson and Speed on board a weapons train en route to Gettysburg. It is night again, so apparently all of this took less than a day.
Never mind. What comes now is a genuinely thrilling action sequence in which the vampires battle with Lincoln and his friends on top of the speeding train, which hurtles toward a high wooden bridge that has been set alight by the sinister Vadoma (pronounced “Vadooma,” I think). This sequence is preposterous and yet exciting, using skillful editing and special effects. Somehow Benjamin Walker and his co-stars here are even convincing — well, as convincing as such goofiness could possibly be.
“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” has nothing useful to observe about Abraham Lincoln, slavery, the Civil War or much of anything else. Blink and you may miss the detail that Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railway essentially won the war for the North. But the film doesn’t promise insights on such subjects. What it achieves is a surprisingly good job of doing justice to its title, and treating Lincoln with as much gravity as we can expect, under the circumstances.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)
Directed by: Timur Bekmambetov
Starring: Benjamin Walker, Rufus Sewell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Dominic Cooper, Marton Csokas, Anthony Mackie, Jimmi Simpson, Joseph Mawle, Robin McLeavy, Erin Wasson, John Rothman
Screenplay by: Seth Grahame-Smith
Production Design by: François Audouy
Cinematography by: Caleb Deschanel
Film Editing by: William Hoy
Costume Design by: Varvara Avdyushko, Carlo Poggioli
Set Decoration by: Cheryl Carasik
Art Direction by: Beat Frutiger
Music by: Henry Jackman
MPAA Rating: R for violence throughout and brief sexuality.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: June 22, 2012
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