"Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"

Based off a book of the same name, "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" is the untold story of Abraham Lincoln's night job as a vampire hunter. It sounds ridiculous, but it is a rather fun movie. Most people wrote this off as a goofy and campy retelling of history, but it is not. There is no "goofy and campy", and is a solid action/horror movie. They manage to fit most everything that happens into his actual history, so nothing is as crazy as one might think.


I avoided this movie for a while because I cannot stand Tim Burton and his "I try really hard to be weird" way of doing things (you'll probably hear this a lot if you continue through my reviews). This movie was merely produced by him and not directed, which is why I finally gave it a chance. And I am very glad I did. The pacing of the movie is pretty decent. There are some slower story elements, but that is made up for by some really fun action sequences. Some of them are far fetched, like when Lincoln and Barts are fighting one another on top of a stampede of horses. Just you wait until the scene with the fight on the train!

Seeing Abe Lincoln's political career grow from a kid studying law all the way to being the president of the US is fun, though that is not the focus of the movie. Not only do we see his political career, but also his life: from when he meets Mary Todd (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who is easily one of my favorite actresses) on until the night he leaves for the theater. It's fun to see some choices he made in his political career being directly caused by the vampires. The aging make-up used on the four main (non-vampire) characters - Benjamin Walker, Winstead, Anthony Mackie, and Jimmi Simpson - was wonderfully done.

Spinning the axe is a sort of theme. Though he doesn't register a lot of kills with the axe until late in the movie (remember that train fight I mentioned?). There comes a point in the movie where he puts down the axe for a long time (though as far as screen time goes, its only about 20 minutes) to focus on his political career, but picks it up again once his son is killed by the vampire family he spent the movie hunting.

There is a bit where we get to see some historical moments reenacted for the movie, like the Battle of Fort Sumter. When he enters back into being a hunter, they even show some of these scenes with vampires being shock troopers for the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg. Then the Union using silver to fight against the Confederacy while Walker reads the Gettysburg Address. Knowing this "secret history", it makes the Gettysburg Address really take on a new meaning. Again, a really fun retelling of history that works in its own weird way.

I highly recommend this if you enjoy action movies and vampire movies. If you're like me and enjoy seeing history toyed around with a bit, you will love it. Give it a chance if you haven't seen it yet. It was surprisingly good!