ABRAHAM LINCOLN VS ZOMBIES
*** Out of 5
Tagline- He Emancipated the Slaves; He Saved the Union and Slaughtered the Undead
Release Date- May 29th, 2012
Running Time- 96-Minutes
Rating- R
Writer/Director- Richard Schenkman
Starring- Bill Oberst, Jr., Jason Vail, Christopher Marrone, Don McGraw, Jason Hughley, Ronald Ogden, Baby Norman, Hannah Bryan, Canon Kuipers
As I write this review I have yet to see Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, which this film knocks off, but I have read the book and the book was excellent. In general I avoid movies from Asylum as they just knock off bigger budget movies and get their movies out first and while knock off films aren’t anything new my problem with Asylum is it makes the horror genre look bad and part of the reason it doesn’t get the respect it deserves and when a horror movie is called not only a great horror movie, but a great movie its labeled a thriller since it seems a horror movie cannot be any good according to the mainstream and knock off films generally don’t help the label.
I really wasn’t sure what to except from this, but I will admit I actually kinda liked this and while this isn’t Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, Abraham Lincoln Vs. Zombies is an entertaining film and if you just go along for the ride you might even find yourself enjoying this one and also this is probably the best film from Asylum in terms of quality and production values. Don’t go into this movie expecting any sort of historical accuracy. Believe it or not the novel for Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter actually is historically accurate at times (well with the exception of vampires). But if you remove anything vampire related it could almost work as a bio as I stated I haven’t seen the film version so I don’t know how accurate it is, but Lincoln Vs. Zombies doesn’t attempt at creating any accuracy and that’s perfectly fine with me. We have characters based off Teddy Roosevelt (Kuipers) and even Pat Garrett (Marrone).
The screenplay by Richard Schenkman is actually entertaining and fun and while none of the characters have a whole lot of depth several of them however are entertaining and while this script would never be called great it does serve its purpose and makes for an entertaining take on historical figures.
As director Richard Schenkman does an uneven job; the film for the most part is fun, but it can also have a few pacing issues and even at 96-minutes it does feel a little overly long. The action sequences are fun and while most of the gore is bad CGI it does work in regards to the type of movie this is. At times the action scenes can sort of repeat themselves and the longer we go without any action it can drag, but at the end of the day the film works on the fun level and really my biggest gripe is the movie should have ended with Lincoln’s (Oberst, Jr), but instead goes on for a few more minutes and this like I said is main problem with the movie even though only 96-minutes it could have been several minutes shorter.
Lincoln Vs. Zombies will never be mistaken for one of the greats of the horror genre, but at the end of the day Schenkman crafts an entertaining movie and regardless of quality all that matters at the end of the day if the movie is fun or not and this gets the passing grade.
The performances are what they are meant to be and most of them are fun, but to my surprise Bill Oberst, Jr. is actually really good as President and zombie killer Abraham Lincoln. I never would have expected such an excellent performance, but Oberst does deliver a really good and fun performance and for me this was the biggest surprise of the movie.
Again Abraham Lincoln Vs. Zombies will never go down as one of the greats and is nothing more than a cheap knock off of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, but with that said if you just take the movie for what it is you might find yourself enjoying it. Despite any problems the movie had I admit I actually kinda liked this one.
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