credit: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer
I’ve mentioned that vampire movies are difficult to make at times since there have been so many of them that trying to make each movie original and worthy of what the fans want is more than a little difficult. One can either go big and take on a lot of popular actors and tell a great story, or they can go over the top and create something that’s definitely way out of bounds but is still kind of entertaining at the same time. That’s where it feels as though this movie came from, a fever dream that was born from the mind of someone who wanted to do something different but wasn’t going to stay within the boundaries that had been mapped out for so long. Why else would one of the most memorable presidents in the history of the United States be used in this manner? Abraham Lincoln had a very storied career and life from the time he was young until he was killed in a rather cowardly fashion, but imagining him as a vampire hunter who’s out to save the nation from becoming a land filled with bloodsuckers is, well, different.
credit: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer
Giving Lincoln a personal history with the vampires was probably a good idea.
It does manage to pull the story together a little more since creating a very personal reason for Lincoln to begin a vendetta that would have gotten him killed if not for the appearance of Henry, a vampire that hates his own kind and is bent on training humans how to kill vampires. That’s not necessarily original, but it is a nice touch since it adds a bit of fuel to the fire, and it evens things up a little when it comes to the idea of fighting this type of war. Thinking that it would be kept out of the history books, though, yeah, that’s where it deviates in a big way, but this ceases to matter since the movie simply goes for it and leans heavily into the idea that Adam, played by Rufus Sewell, is bound and determined to give his people a place to live where the food is plentiful, and they can become their own nation. Given that America was still an extremely young nation that was still piecing itself together, thinking that vampires could have come in and done as they pleased wasn’t too hard.
Despite being kind of a goofy movie, this was fairly well put together.
Yes, watching Lincoln learn how to whirl an ax around his body and attack with it from multiple angles and even embed a pistol in the haft was kind of goofy, but it played out just fine for what this movie was, and on top of that it became something that didn’t try to dial it down and step back from its own premise. There was a minimum of gore, though there was plenty of violence, which actually came together to create a story that was easy to follow and wasn’t bound to disturb as many people. There were even moments that touched upon Lincoln’s actual presidency, such as the moment when it was noted that people were starting to disagree with his methods when it came to the Civil War. One has to remember that Lincoln wasn’t that popular with a lot of people who didn’t believe in the war or its purpose, but showing that he had a hidden agenda that went beyond the war between the North and the South was fun, especially since Adam was playing the other side as he lent the use of his people to the South’s cause.
credit: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer
Rufus Sewell can sell himself as a villain no matter what.
It’s amusing in a way, but Rufus Sewell can play a good guy or a bad guy just as well, but when he plays the villain, he still sounds likable at times since he’s such a calm and collected individual who doesn’t normally fly off the hook. To be realistic, he’s the gentlemanly type of villain who can talk to the protagonist without shouting most times and sound absolutely sinister at the same time. Listening to him talk in this movie made it easy to believe in the bad guy, and the fact that he snapped Abraham’s customary weapon in half like it was nothing and kept striding forward only made him a better character since he didn’t need to show off, he was already deadly as hell, and he knew it.
It wasn’t such a terrible movie that it couldn’t be watched, but it was rather silly.
I’ll keep saying it’s silly and ridiculous no matter who asks, but it was fun all the same since there was plenty of action, and the actors did sell their roles well enough to make it worth watching at least once. Yeah, the movie is kind of goofy, but oh well.
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