Abraham Lincoln was a superstitious man. From a biography we find this ghostly encounter:

A dream or illusion had haunted Lincoln at times through the winter ... looking into a bureau mirror across the room he saw himself full length, but with two faces ... it came back, and haunted him. A few days later he tried it once more and the illusion of the two faces again registered to his eyes.

Maybe he would have appreciated director Timur Bekmambetov’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, a movie that – if I’m not giving it too much credit – sends up both history and myth, the two faces of its title. On one side we have Lincoln, a historical figure and a mortal man built into a saint, on the other evil monsters that, while unreal, illuminate our darkest impulses. That apparent subtext makes Vampire Hunter less ridiculous than it should be. It treats both Lincoln and vampires seriously as ideas that speak to our goodness, and our capacity for evil.

All that factors into a solidly entertaining movie. I admired the wild historical revision (a literary trend begun long before Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) you’ll enjoy seeing Lincoln kick ass, chase vampires through a horse stampede, and balance atop a locomotive speeding across a bridge that is on fire. Between those preposterous set pieces the movie actually tells a story, introduces characters, and has them engage in interesting conversation. Its sense of balance, between action and narrative, is close to perfect.

Praise is due to Benjamin Walker as Lincoln. Squint during the non-vampire scenes and you’ll see a Spielberg biography before Liam Neeson shows up. I don’t know if that speaks too highly of Bekmambetov or too lowly of Spielberg, but you get the idea. Walker never winks, never approaches Lincoln with anything but complete conviction, and allows us to be engaged by a superficially stupid concept.

As this story goes young Lincoln witnesses the death of his mother at the hands of a bloodsucker. Years later he is recruited by Henry (Dominic Cooper) a veteran hunter who cannot continue, for somewhat convoluted reasons, fighting the good fight. In a half-hilarious, half-inspiring Jedi training montage Lincoln goes from a gangly clerk to a man who can swing an axe like a cheerleader’s baton. His commitments to politics and slaying eventually meet at the Civil War, where the vampires support the Confederacy and sink their teeth into helpless Union soldiers. 



Again, solidly entertaining. Never either too jokey or self-seriousness, with actors willing to star in a movie called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and give it their all.



Director: Timur Bekmambetov

20th Century Fox, 105 minutes
Rating: 4/5

Also new in theatres: TORO reviews Brave