7. Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter took an absolute kicking at the critic screenings. It was seen as preposterous, and lumbered with a collection of boring characters. But to dismiss it on these fronts would be to miss the point entirely. Yes, Benjamin Walkers Lincoln was slightly boring , mired in solemnity and overtly serious. Yet that was the point; this Lincoln exists to be burdened. Not only is he dealing with the Civil War, the affairs of a nation in crisis and the freeing of the slaves, he also has to contend with some sort of vampire Armageddon. Inarguably, this would take its toll on a man, so a burdensome portrayal of the great man was probably a good idea, and Walker pulls this off well. The other strength to this approach was that it lent seriousness to the plot. At no point does anybody in the film turn around and wink at the camera, treating this as one big joke, and this turns what couldve been an exercise in high-camp preposterousness into a strangely realistic story, given the subject matter. Its often said that the best fiction is only one step removed from the truth,
Vampire Hunter proves an excellent example of this. Though were given a preposterous premise vampires and an axe-wielding president the rest of the film wisely reins itself in, using real-life events as a jumping-off point for vampire lore. This proves to be an excellent move. By tethering even the most fantastical characters to a historical context, these fictitious individuals sudden find themselves saved from the realms of silliness. The films serious (axes-considered) depiction of Lincoln augments this authenticity, placing the film in dramatic, rather than spoof territory. These supernatural elements are viewed as an extension of history, and but for some awkward pot-shots at the South (it turns out everybodys ancestors south of the Mason-Dixon line were in league with evil vampires...) this synthesis of the fantastical and the realistic comes across rather well. The idea that a large community of vampires who wish to use slaves as an easily-accessible blood supply is a decent way to marry two disparate themes together, as well providing a good route into the necessary exposition for the vampire-hunting world. The short-cut of realism frees the film from long-winded vampire explanations, and grants
Vampire Hunter a tauter structure. It allows it to play to its strengths; namely axe-fu, and plenty of it. Make no mistake, the action set-pieces are probably the highlight of the film, chock-full of Honest Abe engaging in wanton, hyperkinetic violence, twirling his trusty axe-gun around like a cheerleaders baton and demolishing all in his wake. Coupling the moves of Americas 16th president with some heart-stopping set-pieces the train finale especially provides excellent, take-your-breath-away entertainment it makes what couldve been a run-of-the-mill action film into a very good one, give or take an idiotic stampede chase scene.
Vampire Hunter effectively plays on the other side of the table from
Smokin Aces. Though theyre both fundamentally silly action films,
Hunter uses a more po-faced approach than the revel-in-the-nonsense tone adopted by
Aces, and though this is riskier, Timur Bekmambetovs film deals well with it. The historical and fantastical elements compliment each other well, proving to both contextualise the far-fetched axe fights with real-life stakes and as well as livening up the occasionally dry course of history with the absurdity of vampire violence. Its to the films great credit that neither loses track of the other.