Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter or Abraham Lincoln History Destroyer

I went to see Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  It was made by Tim Burton and he always makes a great movie, graphically speaking.  I wasn’t familiar with the book series the movie was based on, but that wasn’t necessarily a prerequisite. I have seen other movies based on books without reading the books and it worked fine.(every book I didn’t want to read in school) 

I happened to have a lot of background knowledge on Abraham Lincoln, though, and was interested to see how much historical accuracy there would be. I was shocked that either the person writing the book or the person writing the screenplay was unconcerned for historical accuracy. Many things caught my eyes. Some may just be nit picking but they deserve to be mentioned.

First, Mary Todd Lincoln was not Lincoln’s first love and she was not as beautiful as depicted. Pictures exist, take a look.  Second, they had four sons, several of which lived to adulthood.  Third, Mary was considered mad as a hatter.  She was committed to an asylum for a time.

Now to the pure historical inaccuracies. There was furniture out of period.  There was a piece of paper that was obviously printed off a computer.  They skipped spots in the Gettysburg Address.  They didn’t mention that the Emancipation Proclamation only freed the slaves in the rebelling states, which was important to the plot because in the plot they were the vampires food supply.

As to the fiction part of the story, it was good.  It was gory.  It had a good plot and an interesting concept.  I understood the paralleling of the freeing of the slaves and the vampires trying to take over the country.  It was a thought out concept but the inaccuracy made it hard to fall completely in love with.

My Rating 3 ½ out of 5