Is it wrong to hope that this movie turns out to be good? Is it wrong to anticipate this film four months ahead of its June release? If it’s wrong…
Seth Grahame-Smith’s 2010 novel, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter sounds like a ridiculous spoof but it wasn’t, really. It was a straightforward rendering of an unambiguously heroic figure as a man with a secret life. But unlike most secret life takes, this secret life of Abe Lincoln doesn’t tear him down. It makes him even more of a giant. Not only is Abraham Lincoln a self-made man, a thinker far ahead of his time and an American leader without peer, Lincoln secretly spent his entire life hunting down and killing vampires with his trusty axe. The novel weaves major events of Lincoln’s real life — the death of his mother, the visit to antebellum Louisiana that turned him forever against slavery, his political career and the Civil War — into the fictional story of vampires invading young America from their home in Europe. Slavery provides them their ideal world; they can set themselves up among the plantations in the South and use the slave culture to serve themselves an infinite feast. Abe Lincoln aims to stop them.
The whole premise of our 16th president as strapping slayer of immortal fanged monsters shouldn’t work at all, but in the novel it does work, thanks to solid writing and a serious tone that captures the melancholia of 19th century America and Lincoln’s life in particular. It works as alt history, Gothic fiction and action horror. It keeps the good guys good and the bad guys bad; there are no tame prettyboy Twilight vampires here. This Abe Lincoln might make Chuck Norris think twice before taking him on. The novel is a dark, fun page-turner, moreso if you’ve studied Lincoln’s life in any detail. Hopefully Tim Burton’s movie can live up to the book.
Categories: Books and Magazines, History, Movies
How fun!
It’s a little known fact that Jefferson Davis had a few un-publicized run in’s with mummies while he served in the mid east prior to his stint in congress.
What’s it going to take to stop this idiotic vampire craze?
The craze will end only when the king of the vampires is slain.
How will you recognize the archfiend? Prof. Van Helsing foresaw this: the vampire-king will be arise, secretly, of mixed, obscure parentage—even the place of his birth will be uncertain; he will seem to come out of nowhere—there will be few friends to speak of his education; his rise to prominence will be rapid and inexplicable; however, when he does step into the light, protected by a great seal, he will seem charismatic; his followers will worship him uncritically, despite his obvious narcissistic and indomitable lust for power; his words, though clearly banal and clumsy to those of judgement and perception, will have a strange hold over those with weak minds——
Hang on …
I read the book a few months ago, I’m not into vampires but I thought it was a fun read. I also liked “The President’s Vampire” and “World War Z”. I read a lot, I maybe obsessed with reading,(my wife says addicted). Just imagine alternative history like Harry Turtledove with a supernatural twist. I probably won’t see the movie because after reading the book I find movie versions a let down about 99 out a 100 times.
The truth is that you can get away with anything if the writing is good enough. Having said that, why have to resort to heroic efforts at writing to make a moronic unfunny concept a success that even Mad Magazine would’ve considered tawdry? If SF in the 40s had themes like this it would’ve deserved the undeserved ostracism it suffered. I used to wish everyone would like SF like I did and now that the mainstream public does I wish they didn’t as it has become a landscape of the equivalent of Michael Buble and velvet paintings. As it turns out, there is a certain wonderfulness that accompanies obscurity as one need not pander to the stupidest SF fan out there.
Seth Grahame-Smith is also the author of “Pride Prejudice and Zombies” which definitely livened up Jane Austen’s work. My favorite part was the martial arts death match between Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Elizabeth Bennet.