Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter 2012

• Director: Timur Bekmambatov
• Based on novel by Seth Grahame-Smith
• Cast: Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rufus Sewell, Joseph Mawle, Alan Tudyk
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Dominic Cooper – The Lady in the Van, Mamma Mia 1&2, Summer in February, Starter for 10, My Week with Marilyn, An Education
• Anthony Mackie – American Violet, Half Nelson, Million Dollar Baby, 8 Mile
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead – Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Factory Girl
• Rufus Sewell – The Tourist, A Knight’s Tale, Pillars of the Earth, The Holiday, Amazing Grace, Paris je t’aime, The Taming of the Shrew Re-told, Hamlet, Cold Comfort Farm, Middlemarch
• Joseph Mawle – Made in Dagenham, Merlin
• Alan Tudyk – Rogue One, A Knight’s Tale, Maze Runner the Scorch Trials, Serenity, Firefly, 28 Days
•  Why?  How can a history teacher resist this title?
• Seen:  28 July 2019

 As a boy Abe (Walker) witnesses the murder of his mother. He swears vengeance. It turns out the murderer was a vampire. As a young man Abe encounters the disgruntled vampire hunter Henry (Cooper) who reluctantly teaches Abe the necessary skills to hunt vampires and Abe becomes quite the expert.

He also becomes president and commander in chief of the union army during the Civil War. We even meet Harriet Tubman. There are vampires in the White House, vampires on the battlefield. The confederacy, and President Davis, are supported by vampires, who want their own nation. I won’t tell you how the Battle of Gettysburg is won by the Union soldiers.

In other words, history is just slightly rewritten here.

Walker and Winstead are completely wrong as Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln but Sewell, Mawle and Tudyk (disgracefully uncredited) add some class and there are moments of real pathos and real despair in this outlandish mishmash of a film. Furthermore, despite the excessive gore, it’s entertaining.

3½ * of 5