Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is now showing at the cinema.
Historical fictions and parodies are always fun. There is little chance that anyone seeing Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter will mistake the tale for real events because the premise is so silly.
Tapping into the current vampire fervour and based on the mash-up book of the same name, the movie would have been better if it had used the silliness to tell the story.
After seeing his mother murdered by a creature of the night, the president vows vengeance and takes vampire-killing lessons from his mysterious acquaintance Henry Sturgess (Cooper).
This all takes place in the Civil War era, when slaves are not only being exploited for slavery, but also as gourmet components of banquet dinners for the vampires in the South. So Abe sets into motion a plan to free the slaves from their gory fate.
Don’t go expecting campy vampire fabulousness - these creatures are not of Twilight ilk - their transformations are scary.
The make-up artists deserve credit for not just applying pale powder and a set of fangs and going the extra mile to prove vampires are not really sexy, sparkly things - they are actually dead people.
While the dialogue is clunky and things seem to happen without much explanation, this is a perfect film for people who like their movies full of blood and gore.
There are attempts to portray Abe and Henry as men torn between the dead and the living, but these fail to attract attention because you just want to see them kill another vamp.
You won’t have to wait long - you are guaranteed at least one decapitation every 15 minutes or so.
Be warned: if you see this movie in 3D, it is one of the few where things actually do jump out at you, including veiny, fangy, vampires that may cause you to drop your popcorn.
