Seth Grahame-Smith is one of the most imaginative authors around at the moment. Who else would look at Pride and Prejudice and go " Yeah, it's ok, but you know what would make it better? Zombies." Well maybe alot of us thought it, but none of us turned it into a bestselling book.
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter was a book by Grahame-Smith published in 2010 about the secret diaries of Abraham Lincoln that revealed his vampire hunting secret. The book, surprisingly, is played extremely straight. With it being a pretty accurate account of Lincoln's life, just with vampires. Its an amazing book, that if it had been silly would of probably sucked, but its the whole point of playing it straight that makes it so good.
The movie plays it pretty straight as well, with relatively little to no humor and a rather depressing scene where Lincoln's 10 year old son dies. The only thing that's kinda not serious about the film are the action sequences, which while cool as shit, are rather over the top.
Benjamin Walker plays Lincoln as he rises from humble beginnings to the president of the United States. Dominic Cooper plays his mentor Henry who teaches him to hunt vampires despite being a vampire himself. He has two companions Joshua Speed, played by Jimmi Simpson, and William Johnson, played by Anthony Mackie, and of course his wife Mary Todd, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. All the actors do a great job, but its Walker as Lincoln who really shines. The antagonist is Adam played by Rufus Sewell, and I have to commend the film makers for not making him the standard over the top villain that plagues most movies today.
Timur Bekmambetov does a great job directing and is a very stylish director. I saw the movie with two friends and one of them complained about all the slow-mo used in the action sequences and while I admit that, yes, it is quite a bit, it never really bothered me much. There's a couple really neat action sequences, one involving a fight with Lincoln versus about a dozen vampires in a plantation house, another a stampede of horses, and another in and on top of a train.
So, is Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter a perfect movie? Well, no. It has a few tiny flaws and there are quite a few changes from the book, but since the film was written by Grahame-Smith the changes didn't really bother me. It has good dialogue with quite a few bad ass sayings and some good narration. It's directed well, very stylish, and the actors all play their part well. I enjoyed watching it and would recommend.
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