Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012): Final thoughts.

I guess this film will hinge on whether it works or not for the viewer based on how each of us can accept it on its own terms. There’s one scene where Dominic Cooper’s vampire mentor for Abe, Henry Sturges, trains him and we see how both pupil and teacher are tilt-a-whirling an ax that defies any form of realism. It’s early in the film, as was the ridiculous moments where young Mr. Lincoln cuts directly through a giant tree and then comes down with a chop the splits a tree stump in half. This is explained as power coming from truth not hate. Alrighty then.

The film covers ground involving Abe’s personal life and presidency (how could it not, right?). He goes to work for a store owner named Speed (Jimmi Simpson), and Abe eventually meets Mary Todd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). She’s of course involved with another (Alan Tudyk) but that was an obvious mismatch.

Jack Barts. He is indeed Abe’s target. But Henry is Abe’s mentor and dictates what vampires he attacks. Barts wasn’t on that list for a while, so Abe eventually, when not axing vampires, went into politics and dated Mary Todd.

The film has Abe splitting trees with his ax and strength, but even more absurd, we get him going after Barts amongst stampeding horses. Oh, and get this: Barts lifts a horse off its feet and hurls it at Abe. Oh, and the horse actually barrels right into Abe. This would kill most folks, but Abe is superhuman.

The film parallels Abe and Mary Todd with Henry’s tragic loss. Not only was Henry turned, he had to watch as the man that put the vampire bite on him kills his wife. Henry fears that Abe, being the vampire hunter that he is, will suffer a similar fate if he isn’t careful and cautious.

“All I ever wanted was for my kind to have their rightful place.”

What goes on in my mind (and I’m guessing many others) is that part of the suspense is removed regarding Lincoln’s safety. He obviously succeeds or he would have died at the hands of “Confederate” slave-owning vampires. Just writing that makes me giggle. Again, it makes them right fit for booing and provides plenty of incentive to cheer the hunters, Abe and his friends.

While this is a comic book horror show with Abe Lincoln slaying vampires, the film still has the young man on the “free the slaves” circuit, in political halls with speeches athunder. The film has some gall to it. Incorporate how Abe takes on the “whole South” by waging war with vampire leader, Adam. Adam backing the Confederacy as he sees this as an opportunity to secure dominance for his race. Lincoln not only is a threat to the bloodsuckers with his chopping ax, but also he threatens the fabric of their existence as slave owners. I can imagine scholars and historians, purists to the past of our country of USA, might consider this some type of blasphemy, but the film never really had any lasting quality that couldn’t be stomped out by the next two Lincoln films that came after this one.

You have the Civil War, a member of Adam’s legion biting the hand of the Lincolns’ son as the vampirism leaves him in a coma, Gettysburg leaving a lot of dead Union Soldiers thanks to Adam’s vampires helping the Confederacy, the Lincolns’ marriage enduring misery thanks to the upheaval of a war that is ripping apart a nation and the suffering of their child continuing, so this film doesn’t fail to really insist on implementing history mixed with vampire interference.