Movie Review: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Release Date ~ 6/22/12
Director ~ Timur Bekmemtov
Starring ~ Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Screenplay ~ Seth Grahame-Smith
Studio ~ 20th Century Fox

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter explores the secret life of our greatest president, and the untold story that shaped our nation. Visionary filmmakers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (director of Wanted) bring a fresh and visceral voice to the bloodthirsty lore of the vampire, imagining Lincoln as history's greatest hunter of the undead.

I came into this movie with high expectations. I had really enjoyed the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith and since Grahame-Smith was writing the screenplay for the film, I knew it would be his vision, and wouldn't change anything from the novel he didn't want to be changed. And I have to say, I really enjoyed it.

    This movie had a really great cast. With Benjamin Walker (fun fact: he's married to Meryl Streep's daughter) taking the leading role. And I have to say, he looked and acted the perfect Lincoln. The movie covers Abe from age 20 (or so) to his assassination at the age of 56, and it was true Hollywood makeup magic that made Walker look 26 years older then the start of the movie. Dominic Cooper played Lincoln's badass vampire mentor, Henry, and he was pretty awesome.

    Though a few changes bothered me a little, I thought almost everything they added to the story in the book made it better. The thing I really enjoyed was the account of how Henry turned into a vampire. *SPOILER* A major change that I didn't really like though was instead of the movie ending with Henry and Abraham as a vampire at the Martin Luther King's 'I Have A Dream Speech' like it did in the book, it had it end with Abe and Henry sitting in a bar in president (Abe was on his iPhone, which I found hilarious) and Henry telling Abe "A man only gets that drunk when he wants to kiss a girl or kill a man" which I guess is to leave room for a sequel. *END SPOILERS* 


   Seth Grahame-Smith wrote a great screenplay. Like I said, the changes were mostly good, and he added a bit more humor to the movie then was in the book which I enjoyed, because it is overall a pretty dark movie and it was nice to have some comic relieve.

   The special effects in this were AWESOME! I saw the film in 3D and in added a ton to the fight scenes. Though it was a lot less gory then I expected it to be, the fight scenes had the vampires with awesome effects. A certain train fight was really cool...

    Fairly faithful to the book and great fun, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is a good movie no matter if you read the book or not (though I highly advise reading it, as it's a great read) that will make you feel oddly patriotic. This movie already has my award for favorite horror flick of the year!