Review | Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter a genre mash-up that makes American Civil War a humans vs vampires conflict
Timur Bekmambetov presents Abraham Lincoln as the humanist who will become US president and an axe-wielding terminator of the undead. And it doesn't work.
Starring; Benjamin Walker, Rufus Sewell, Dominic Cooper, Mary Elizabeth Winstead Director: Timur Bekmambetov Category: IIB
During the first half-hour of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the young man who will eventually become the future 16th president of the United States is constantly confronted with questions about who he is.
In a bar, Lincoln (Benjamin Walker, left, with Dominic Cooper) is asked whether his drunkenness stems from a desire to kiss a girl or kill a man; in a fight, he is taunted about thinking whether he is a man who will shoot, or one who won't.
These queries are probably key in preparing viewers for Lincoln's future (and fictional) double life as a humanist and an axe-wielding terminator of the undead, but perhaps director Timur Bekmambetov should have reflected on them when adapting Seth Grahame-Smith's novel into an effects-laden blockbuster. As it stands, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is seemingly fashioned as a lot of things but never really being remarkable in any.
The film is certainly meant to be more than just the silly action thriller its title suggests. Just like Gangs of New York, ABVH could be seen as a parable offering an explanation and warning about current political predicaments.
Lincoln's abolitionist ideals and the American Civil War are now explained as a war between humans and vampires (and their human proxy in the Confederates) feeding on and exploiting slaves.